The now struggling voice-to-text conversion firm SpinVox, which was once the rising star of Britain's technology sector, is being purchased by an American rival company for merely half the funds that were involved in the business over the recent years.

US Silicon Valley based Nuance yesterday agreed to buy the UK firm for $102.5 Million (64 Million Pounds) in cash and shares, which would mean very heavy losses for many of the firm's shareholders.

Under the terms of the deal, Nuance will pay SpinVox $66 Million in cash and $36.5 Million in shares, and the price is much lesser than the over $200 Million that the privately owned firm had managed to raise in rounds of successive financing over the past years.

SpinVox was launched in 2004 with the aim to save time for busy professionals by converting their voice-mails to text messages, and the service attracted the attention of various high profile investors like Charles Dunstone and the Carphone Warehouse founder. Current investors include GLG, the hedge fund.

No announcements have yet been made about the fate of SpinVox's staff base of 230 employees.