Microsoft Corp is in advanced talks to buy artificial intelligence and speech technology company Nuance Communications Inc, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.

An agreement could be announced as soon as this week, Bloomberg said citing people familiar with the matter.

The price being discussed could value Nuance at about $56 a share, though the terms could still change, one of the people said. According to Bloomberg, the equity of Nuance would be valued at about $16 billion.

Nuance's shares have climbed 3.4% this year, giving the company an almost $13 billion market value but still trailing the 9.9% jump in the S&P 500 Index. Microsoft has climbed 15%.

Microsoft, with a market value of more than $1.93 trillion, remains active on the deals front.

A deal for Nuance would rank as Microsoft’s second-largest acquisition, behind only the $24 billion LinkedIn Corp. transaction in 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

(With input from agencies)