Telecom Italia announced on Saturday the sale of its voice technology arm Loquendo to US speech recognition company Nuance Communications Inc for 53 million euros ($76 million). The sale of Loquendo, a 100-employee spin-off from the Italian giant\'s research labs, is part of \"a shift of focus toward its core business,\" the company said in a statement. Nuance is committed to keeping the company\'s headquarters in Turin, and creating \"a global centre of excellence in voice technology R&D,\" Telecom Italia assured. Nuance, in its literature, says it is \"perfecting the ability for machines to recognize and emulate the human voice\".