Burlington, Mass., October 1, 2007 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: NUAN) today announced that Wes Hayden has been appointed president of the Nuance Enterprise division, effective immediately. In this newly created position, Mr. Hayden will be responsible for managing strategy operations, marketing, professional services and engineering, for Nuance’s Enterprise products and solutions. He will report to Paul Ricci, Nuance’s chairman and CEO.

Wes Hayden joins Nuance from his role as president and CEO of Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent. Mr. Hayden’s previous experience includes executive roles at Informix, Sun Microsystems, Digital Equipment Corporation and Applied Data Research.

“Wes will be a tremendous asset to Nuance; his leadership, vision, track-record and industry expertise make him an ideal leader for our ambitious agenda,” said Paul Ricci, chairman and CEO of Nuance. “Wes is widely respected as an executive with solid enterprise-oriented solution skills and ability to foster strong customer relationships. With this appointment, we add additional strength to our leadership team and enter 2008 with a keen focus on aggressive growth and satisfying demand for Nuance solutions around the world.”

Mr. Hayden joins Nuance and its Enterprise division at a time when the company has shifted its emphasis from point technologies to integrated enterprise solutions that utilize speech and are targeted at specific markets. He is ideally suited for this role, able to draw on a wealth of experience having most recently led the transformation of Genesys into a broader application and solution provider for the call center industry.

“Nuance created a talent ensemble and solutions portfolio that has the potential to serve the world’s consumers,” said Wes Hayden, president, Nuance Enterprise Division. “Nuance’s vision for speech in the enterprise is more exciting today than ever before and is embodied in the myriad breakthroughs it has recently brought to customers and partners. I am honored to lead this organization, eager to work directly with our customers and partners, embrace Nuance’s global agenda and lead the team to a dynamic, promising future.”

Mr. Hayden holds and M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwester University and a B.S. from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Glenkirk Foundation in Northbrook, Illinois and on the Board of Directors of the International Women’s Democracy Center (IWDC) in Washington, DC.

In connection with the hiring of Mr. Hayden, Nuance made an inducement grant of stock options and restricted stock in accordance with NASDAQ Marketplace Rule 4350, with the approval of the Compensation Committee of Nuance’s Board of Directors, as more fully described below. Mr. Hayden received an option to purchase 100,000 shares of Nuance common stock, with an exercise price equal to the fair market value of Nuance common stock on the date of grant. Mr. Hayden also received awards of restricted stock in the amount of 415,000 shares. The stock options and 315,000 of the restricted shares are subject to time-based vesting, with opportunities to accelerate the vesting of 300,000 restricted shares based on the achievement of performance targets. The remaining 100,000 shares of restricted stock are subject to performance-based vesting. The vesting of all stock options and shares of restricted stock is subject to Mr. Hayden’s continued employment with Nuance.

About Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

The statements in this press release that relate to Nuance’s future plans, events or performances are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with market trends, competitive factors, and other risks identified in Nuance’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof.