Genesys, a provider of customer engagement and contact centre solutions, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SoundBite Communications for $5 per share.
SoundBite delivers cloud-based proactive collections, payments, and mobile marketing applications, as well as proactive customer service solutions to enterprises.
Paul Segre, president and CEO of Genesys, said: "Cloud solutions that quickly solve business challenges are in high demand, and offering these solutions is core to our mission.
"The acquisition of SoundBite will expand our portfolio to help our customers meet these challenges, and continues our rapid expansion into cloud solutions in both new and existing markets."
Jim Milton, president and CEO of SoundBite, commented: "This transaction provides our stockholders with a significant premium for their shares, and presents SoundBite with an exciting new endeavour that makes tremendous sense for the market.
"We believe existing SoundBite customers will value the benefits of being part of the global Genesys community made up of the world's leading innovators in customer experience."
The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of SoundBite and also by Genesys, will be accomplished pursuant to a cash tender offer followed by a second step merger. The $5 per share cash offer price represents a total equity value of SoundBite of approximately $100.4m, on a fully-diluted basis. The closing of the transaction is expected to occur early in the third quarter of 2013.
It is hoped that the proposed acquisition will strengthen the Genesys cloud solutions portfolio, building on its recent acquisition of Angel for self-service and contact centre solutions. Cloud-based sales, marketing, and customer service solutions provide companies with the ability to better acquire, service, and grow their business with new and existing customers by offering purpose-built applications that can be deployed quickly by business users. Those users can be located in departments across the enterprise including marketing, accounts receivable, collections, and contact centres.
The acquisition is expected to contribute approximately $50 million in cloud-based revenue to Genesys, bringing the total to over $135 million for Genesys' growing cloud business.
