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“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” an Apple spokesperson said. This is the company's boilerplate response it uses for corporate acquisitions.
Novauris bills itself as a “speech access company,” saying, “Novauris believes that voice will become the interface of choice for consumer applications of all types. Users should be able to ask for information quickly, easily and directly without needing an enrollment process or complicated and time-consuming dialogues.”
The company says that its technology allows people to easily “search and access” information by voice. This makes Novauris a good fit for Apple, which is building Siri to be the interface of the future.
Apple's modus operandi for corporate acquisitions is to buy small companies for a few hundred million dollars or less, and then integrate that company's technology and/or personnel into Apple's existing corporate infrastructure, projects, and products.
Under CEO Tim Cook, Apple has dramatically stepped up its acquisitions, buying up some 15 companies in fiscal 2013 alone. In prior years, Apple has been much less aggressive, buying only a few companies per year.