Posts Tagged ‘acquisition’

West Interactive acquires TuVox

One day after its second quarter earnings report, West (the Interactive division) announces another major acquisition: San Jose, CA-based TuVox. Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed, but something tells me that TuVox isn’t doing too well and its investors wanted an out. From its website, 2007 was the last time TuVox received any sort of industry recognition; its blog hasn’t been updated since June 2009. Digging through its website reveals no recent news…

It wasn’t too long ago that West scooped up Holly Connects, an IVR platform provider which I think wasn’t doing too well, either. While the Holly Connects acquisition was a platform play, today’s buyout of TuVox appears to complement it with a portfolio of on-demand IVR solutions and IVR applications.

I suppose West has done well in identifying buying opportunities, especially in this distressed economy, and using its cash wisely to expand its products and services. Could it be the Oracle of Omaha in the contact center industry?

Press release:

OMAHA, Neb., July 22, 2010 – West Interactive, a leading provider of hosted and managed automated customer contact solutions, today announced it has acquired TuVox, a premier provider of on-demand speech and IVR applications.

TuVox has pioneered a unique agile development methodology for speech applications that can yield a superior caller experience in less time and with less risk when detailed requirements are difficult to specify in advance. “TuVox collaborates closely with our clients throughout the development process,” said Mark Lazar, CEO of TuVox. “We find this allows us to better understand their fundamental business needs and respond with creative solutions that produce great results from the start.”

TuVox constructs applications using proprietary development tools that address all aspects of the application lifecycle, from initial design through ongoing operations and tuning. The tool set includes features often sought by clients, including support for the leading VoiceXML platforms, a replaceable runtime component, and a multi-tenanted administration console for configuration and reporting. The addition of TuVox to the West Interactive Hosted IVR platform enhances the current best-in-class applications that optimize the results of our clients businesses.

“We are extremely impressed with the TuVox staff and their ability to rapidly deploy a high-quality application even when clients had difficulty articulating their precise requirements,” said Pam Mortenson, President of West Interactive. “We believe this capability combined with our best-in-class platform and scale will create a truly unique solution that will be particularly beneficial when working with clients on cutting-edge applications.”

West does not expect results from TuVox to have a material impact to its 2010 financial results.

About West Interactive:
West Interactive is a leading provider of hosted and managed automated customer contact solutions. We help our clients connect with their customers more effectively, deliver superior service and maximize the value of every customer interaction. We provide advanced technologies and a highly scalable standards-based infrastructure to help businesses more efficiently conduct multi-media transactions. We have the people, technology and experience to handle the simplest or most complex solutions. Services include custom speech applications, customer surveys, network based call routing and analytic services.

West Interactive, a subsidiary of West Corporation, is located in Omaha, Nebraska, and serves Fortune 1000 clients in nearly every vertical market. For more information, please call 1-800-841-9000 or visit www.westinteractive.com.

About West Corporation
West Corporation is a leading provider of technology-driven, voice-oriented solutions. West offers its clients a broad range of communications and infrastructure management solutions that help them manage or support critical communications. West’s customer contact solutions and conferencing services are designed to improve its clients’ cost structure and provide reliable, high-quality services. West also provides mission-critical services, such as public safety and emergency communications.

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, West serves Fortune 1000 companies and other clients in a variety of industries, including telecommunications, banking, retail, financial, technology and healthcare. West has sales and operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America. For more information on West Corporation, please call 1-800-841-9000 or visit www.west.com.

About TuVox
TuVox provides mission critical IVR hosting and managed services to companies who envision voice automation as a strategic part of their customer experience. Since 2000, TuVox has become synonymous with superior caller experience. Throughout its history, TuVox has delivered IVR solutions that have both revolutionized how people use the phone and mobile devices to access information, solve problems and transact business and have achieved the expected business outcome for its clients. TuVox On Demand applications are available as configurable solutions for industries such as banking, financial services, insurance, communications, consumer electronics, technology, utilities, entertainment, healthcare, publishing, retail and travel.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “may,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “intends,” “continue” or similar terminology. These statements reflect only West’s current expectations and are not guarantees of future performance or results. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the effects of global economic trends on the businesses of West’s clients; competition in West’s highly competitive industries; West’s ability to keep pace with its clients’ needs for rapid technological change and systems availability; the loss, financial difficulties or bankruptcy of any key clients; the non-exclusive nature of West’s client contracts and the absence of revenue commitments; increases in the cost of voice and data services or significant interruptions in these services; the cost of pending and future litigation; extensive regulation affecting many of West’s businesses; security and privacy breaches of the systems West uses to protect personal data; West’s ability to protect its proprietary information or technology; the cost of defending West against intellectual property infringement claims; service interruptions to West’s data and operation centers; West’s ability to retain key personnel and attract a sufficient number of qualified employees; increases in labor costs and turnover rates; the political, economic and other conditions in the countries where West operates; and West’s ability to complete future acquisitions and integrate or achieve the objectives of its recent and future acquisitions. West is also subject to other risk factors described in documents filed by the company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which the statements were made. West undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law.

Media Contact:
Mack McKenzie
402-963-1324

Alcatel-Lucent acquires ProgrammableWeb

I’ll give credit to Alcatel-Lucent for thinking outside the box in today’s acquisition of ProgrammableWeb, a site that catalogs Web APIs. ALU has been on an aggressive path of transformation into a Web API-centric telecom company as I’d written here before. Clearly it believes that the future of telecom is the Web, and its executive management team is doing something about it. The Web-focused strategy may just give ALU an advantage over its heavyweight competitors.

Official press release:

Paris June 29, 2010 – Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that it has acquired ProgrammableWeb, the technology industry’s universal source for Web APIs (application programming interfaces) used by application developers to build web, mobile, and other connected applications that serve consumers and the workplace.  Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Web APIs enable developers to create new applications leveraging various kinds of content and functionality.  Alcatel-Lucent’s acquisition of ProgrammableWeb will help bring together an ecosystem of service providers, enterprises, and developers to drive the creation of unique applications today and in the new world of broadband mobile through LTE.

ProgrammableWeb will continue to operate as a separate entity, maintaining its repository of over 2,000 Web APIs which are regularly accessed by a community of hundreds of thousands of developers, and continuing its role as the industry’s most comprehensive content source for Web services development.  Alcatel-Lucent will provide support and resources to promote the continued and robust growth of the API and developer ecosystem, and facilitate service providers’ participation within that ecosystem.

For Alcatel-Lucent this acquisition provides an important new channel to partner with the Web developer community – a dialog it has started with its Open API Service and Developer Platform.  It also gives Alcatel-Lucent access to general API usage patterns, allowing it to build highly relevant API bundles for its Open API Service. ProgrammableWeb’s API monitoring services, API trial services, and automated API updates will be integrated into Alcatel-Lucent’s Developer Platform. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent will be able to share its developer resources, such as its dashboard that helps developers track application monetization, with ProgrammableWeb’s developer community.

“If you look at any organization that launches an API, you quickly realize that the one thing the most successful APIs have in common is a vibrant developer ecosystem,” said Laura Merling, vice president of Alcatel-Lucent’s global developer strategy.  “Our goal is to protect the uniqueness and independence of ProgrammableWeb as an API repository and developer resource, while adding beneficial technologies and service provider relationships to the mix for everyone’s benefit.”

This move advances Alcatel-Lucent’s Application Enablement strategy, which is focused on combining the trusted and secure network capabilities of service providers with the speed and creativity of the Web to provide a richer end-user experience.

“ProgrammableWeb has always sought to put developers first, by giving them the most timely and comprehensive picture of everything related to APIs,” said John Musser, ProgrammableWeb founder who is moving to Alcatel-Lucent, but will continue to oversee the repository’s operation.  “That mission will be strengthened and expanded by joining forces with Alcatel-Lucent.  As APIs become more central to software strategies in all domains, we’ll make ProgrammableWeb an even better one-stop independent source.”

About ProgrammableWeb

ProgrammableWeb is the leading online destination dedicated to mashups, APIs and the Web as a development platform. Founded in 2005, ProgrammableWeb offers the Internet’s largest directory of Web 2.0 APIs and mashups. With over 2,000 open APIs and thousands of real-world mashups, users can search, contribute, and connect as part of ProgrammableWeb’s active mashup developer community. The site also offers daily industry news, analysis, case studies, tools and technical resources. Regularly featured in major publications worldwide, including Forbes, Newsweek and CIO, ProgrammableWeb is a recognized industry authority. For more information, visit www.programmableweb.com.

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted transformation partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries such as defense, energy, healthcare, transportation, and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP and optics technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 15.2 billion in 2009 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet:http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.

Contact the Alcatel-Lucent Press Office: press@alcatel-lucent.com

NICE acquires eglue for $29 million

NICE Systems continues to stay focused on its core competency of customer analytics by buying up Hoboken, NJ-based eglue. Not sure if the private investors of eglue made a spectacular exit, however. According to CrunchBase, eglue received over $20 million in funding but sold for $29 million. Of course, since it’s a private company there’s no public financial data so maybe eglue made great profits throughout the years and gave the investors great returns.

This acquisition will make the NICE SmartCentre even more effective with eglue’s real-time decisioning and guidance engine. The technology will provide contact center agents with the “next best move” in terms of interacting with a customer, thereby maximizing the return potential on each customer interaction. Sounds a bit creepy? Turning agents into drones at the command of a piece of software? Which brings up a good question: Do companies hire contact center agents to think, or simply let the software do the thinking?

To the company I can understand how having good analytics software and have agents follow the its guidance may prove to save money and provide a more consistent customer experience. Obviously many Fortune companies are clients of NICE and eglue, so they must be doing something right. However, if the future of customer interaction is heavily systemized via software, then why do we have agents at all? Are we entering an era where human agents provide little to no value, except for a minority that complains about missing the “human touch” when dealing with companies?

Anyway, I digress. Official press release here:

RA’ANANA, ISRAEL, June 10, 2010 NICE Systems (NASDAQ: NICE), a leading global provider of intent-based solutions that enable enterprises and security organizations to extract Insight from Interactions, transactions and surveillance to drive business performance, reduce risk and ensure safety, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acq uire eglue, a leading provider of real-time decisioning and guidance solutions. NICE customers will benefit from the strategic expansion of the company’s enterprise contact center and back office offering, enhancing and further impacting compliance adherence, operational efficiency, customer experience and sales and marketing effectiveness , enabling their organization to become more customer-centric.

Under the terms of the agreement, NICE will be acquiring the company for a total cash consideration of approximately $29 million. The transaction price may be increased by up to an additional $6 million, subject to certain performance criteria.

The combination of eglue’s leading real-time decisioning and guidance capabilities and the NICE SmartCenter suite of intent-based business solutions will enable contact centers to harness Customer Dynamics, turning insights from cross-channel customer interactions into business impact in real time. For example, an agent servicing a customer that has previously called the contact center regarding the same issue will receive a real-time alert about the customer’s sequence of prior interactions across the different communication channels (web, chat, text, etc.) and be presented with all the necessary information and steps to efficiently resolve the customer issue. Furthermore, the agent will be provided with personalized real-time guidance to leverage and act upon cross-sell or up-sell opportunities.

“A major trend that will dominate customer service strategies over the next five years is providing contact center agents a combination of business rules and business knowledge in real time,” said Michael Maoz, Research Vice President at analyst and advisory firm Gartner. “The ability to impact interactions based on analysis of the most relevant customer and interaction data is key to delivering an excellent customer experience.”

eglue’s capabilities will also significantly extend NICE’s ability to address workforce efficiency, effectiveness, and compliance adherence in back office operations.

Founded in 2001, eglue is headquartered in the US, with offices in Israel and Europe. Its solutions have been installed at dozens of customer sites worldwide, including first-tier telecom carriers, and financial services, retail, travel and utility companies.

“Joining NICE is an important and exciting step for eglue and its customers,” said Omer Geva, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, eglue. “Together, we’ll expand our global outreach to support the evolving needs of customers in both the contact center and back office arena worldwide. Being a part of NICE will enable us to provide unmatched capabilities to our customers by addressing their most pressing business challenges.”

The joint eglue-NICE SmartCenter solutions close the loop on key business improvement processes required by enterprises worldwide, turning business insights into impact in real time. Together, we will further advance NICE’s innovative Customer Dynamics strategy to improve the complex, ongoing exchange between companies and their customers, as companies strive to gain a competitive edge, retain satisfied and loyal customers, while operating in the most efficient and profitable manner,” said Zeevi Bregman, President and Chief Executive Officer, NICE Systems. “We are excited about the many opportunities presented by this strategic move. With eglue’s real-time decisioning and guidance offering, we augment our intent-based business solutions — a major growth driver for NICE — as well as extend our reach into back office operations, which today is a significant and underserved market. We expect that the addition of eglue will contribute to NICE’s growth and profitability in the years to come. We look forward to having eglue’s strong management and professional teams join NICE.”

The transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and is anticipated to close during the third quarter of 2010.

Following closing and as a result of the acquisition, NICE expects to generate additional non-GAAP revenues of several million dollars in 2010 and to be slightly dilutive on a non-GAAP earning per fully diluted share basis in each of the last two quarters of 2010. Furthermore, the acquisition is expected to become accretive on a non-GAAP earnings per fully diluted share basis in the first quarter of 2011. These estimates exclude acquisition related expenses and amortization of acquired intangible assets as well as certain business combination costs.

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About eglue
eglue is a global provider of unique solutions that maximize the return on every customer interaction. The eglue solution impacts the bottom and top lines in the contact center by reducing operational expenses, generating new revenue and retaining customers, all in real time. eglue increases business and IT agility, and ensures a quick return on investment (ROI). Founded in 2001 by Moshe Avlagon and Omer Geva, eglue is headquartered in Hoboken, NJ, with offices in the UK and Israel and serves Fortune 500 companies worldwide. More information on eglue can be found at  www.eglue.com.

About NICE SmartCenter
NICE SmartCenter is the premier solution suite for helping companies optimizeCustomer Dynamics , with unique capabilities for capturing customer and organizationintent, analyzing interactions and transactions for insight, and generating impact on the interaction and the business. NICE SmartCenter includes pre-packaged business solutions that address specific business issues, powered by best-in-class functional components spanning call recording , quality management , workforce management,cross-channel interaction analytics , including speech analytics , real-time guidance, and   performance management . The business solutions capture, analyze and impact customer interactions in real time, across a variety of channels, from audio, email and chat to social media and text messaging.  The solutions include nine packaged offerings: Customer Churn Reduction , Sales Effectiveness , Customer Experience ,Marketing Effectiveness , Collections Optimization , Quality Optimization, First Contact Resolution Optimization , Average Handle Time Optimization , and Compliance Management .  These solutions can be deployed on premise, in a hosted model, or via a managed service , and can be implemented stand-alone or fully integrated with customer relationship management and business intelligence solutions.

About NICE Systems
NICE Systems (NASDAQ: NICE) is the leading provider of Insight from Interactions solutions and value-added services, powered by advanced analytics of unstructured multimedia content – from telephony, web, radio and video communications. NICE’s solutions address the needs of the enterprise and security markets, enabling organizations to operate in an insightful and proactive manner, and take immediate action to improve business and operational performance and ensure safety and security. NICE has over 24,000 customers in more than 150 countries, including more than 80 of the Fortune 100 companies. More information is available athttp://www.nice.com.

Trademark Note: 360° View, Alpha, ACTIMIZE, Actimize logo, Customer Feedback, Dispatcher Assessment, Encorder, eNiceLink, Executive Connect, Executive Insight, FAST, FAST alpha Blue, FAST alpha Silver, FAST Video Security, Freedom, Freedom Connect, IEX, Interaction Capture Unit, Insight from Interactions, Investigator, Last Message Replay, Mirra, My Universe, NICE, NICE logo, NICE Analyzer, NiceCall, NiceCall Focus, NiceCLS, NICE Inform, NICE Learning, NiceLog, NICE Perform, NiceScreen, NICE SmartCenter, NICE Storage Center, NiceTrack, NiceUniverse, NiceUniverse Compact, NiceVision, NiceVision Alto, NiceVision Analytics, NiceVision ControlCenter, NiceVision Digital, NiceVision Harmony, NiceVision Mobile, NiceVision Net, NiceVision NVSAT, NiceVision Pro, Performix, Playback Organizer, Renaissance, Scenario Replay, ScreenSense, Tienna, TotalNet, TotalView, Universe, Wordnet are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NICE Systems Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Corporate Media:
Galit Belkind	NICE Systems	+1 877 245 7448
Investors:
Daphna Golden	NICE Systems	+1 877 245 7449

his press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, including the statements by Messer Bregman, are based on the current expectations of the management of NICE-Systems Ltd. (the Company) only, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results or performance of the Company to differ materially from those described herein, including but not limited to the impact of the global economic environment on the Company’s customer base (particularly financial services firms) and the resulting uncertainties; changes in technology and market requirements; decline in demand for the Company’s products; inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications; difficulties or delays in absorbing and integrating acquired operations, products, technologies and personnel; loss of market share; pressure on pricing resulting from competition; and inability to maintain certain marketing and distribution arrangements. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting the company, refer to the Company’s reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 20-F. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise them, except as required by law.

Ribbit finally shows up in BT business offering

BT spent $105 million a couple of years ago to scoop up Ribbit, back then when Internet call management was just appearing on the radar. It was a move that put BT in the pool of a Big Telecom vendor who understood the power of Internet telephony.

But after the high-profile acquisition, we just didn’t hear about Ribbit much. Rumors started swirling around about the buy — did BT make a mistake? Paid too much? Did it really understand Ribbit?

Wander no more. BT will roll Ribbit into its Onevoice business product as a beta product and hope to launch it by the end of 2010:

Ribbit provides not only a single number for incoming and outgoing calls, integrating with existing VoIP services where necessary, but also an open API. This allows companies to create their own applications for integrating with those cloud-based systems that are so popular these days.

BT also reckons companies can save a fortune by routing calls over VoIP connections when out of the office, and get access to the full exchange functionality too. So no excuses remain for failing to dial into the conference call while travelling.

Ribbit also integrates with mobiles, offering custom applications for the iPhone, among others, and is capable of integrating with any network and handling incoming and outgoing calls on any handset (using call forwarding).

Sounds like a pretty good voice product for business. Google has also mentioned previously about offering Google Voice for businesses, so let’s see which offering captures the fancy of business customers.

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• BT trials corporate ‘Skype’ (computing.co.uk)
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Google eyes Skype’s pie, Skype hires pie guardians

The Big G is serious about IP communications, as in both voice and video. Remember when Gtalk was introduced? Yeah, me either. The Google faithful saw the late birth of Gtalk, went meh, then continued their IMs on AIM, Yahoo, and MSN. Google may be the King of Search, but it finally admitted defeat to the Lord of IM when it integrated AIM into Gtalk. Then Gtalk evolved into Google Chat with audio and video capabilities (thanks to stealthy Vidyo technology).

Last year it acquired Gizmo5 to get nice VOIP software on the Web, desktop, and mobile devices. I’m quite a fan of Gizmo5. Paired with Google Voice (let’s not forget its acquisition of GrandCentral, another major purchase in the communications space), I can make unlimited free VOIP calls.

On Tuesday we learned that the Big G just got bigger by gobbling up Global IP Solutions (aka GIPS) for $68 million in cash. Certainly not pocket change, but I think it’s worth every penny considering GIPS supplies the technologies to an impressive list of customers.

Hmmm, is there any doubt what Google is up to? GrandCentral + Gizmo5 + GIPS = ??? I know what you’re thinking: Google likes to buy companies that start with the letter ‘G’. Okay, wait, don’t get distracted by Google’s G-fetish…

…The word out on the streets is that Big G is ready to challenge Skype. The folks over at Skype must’ve sensed something wasn’t quite right because about the same time as the Google-GIPS news broke, Skype released news of two executive appointments — a Chief Legal Officer and a Chief Marketing Officer.

Coincidence? I think not!

Skype has become quite a force to be reckoned with in both the traditional telecom and IP communications markets. Geeks use it, traveling businessmen use it, grandmas use it, relief workers use it, journalists use it, dictators use it, and it wouldn’t be long before your dog starts using it too.

But I believe Google has a much bigger appetite than to just eat from Skype’s pie. Google has hinted previously to include Voice and Chat into its business offering, so with GIPS in its arsenal it can really make a splash in the B2B market. It’s not just Skype, but a couple of other West Coast goliaths, namely Cisco and Microsoft. The Big G has made Web search as simple as it is ubiquitous. Now it’s time for videoconferencing services.

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• Is Google Building a Skype Competitor? (mashable.com)
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• Google’s VOIP buying spree continues with Global IP Solutions offer (engadget.com)