NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE) has acquired Israeli start-up Actimize Ltd. for $280 million. 80% of the purchase price will be in cash and the rest in an allocation of NICE shares. Actimize develops and markets transactional risk management software for the financial services industry NICE expects to close the deal during the third quarter of 2007.
NICE said that it expects Actimize to add $55-60 million in revenue, in non-GAAP terms, to the company.
Actimize CEO David Sosna, COO David Govrin, and CTO Boaz Peer founded the company in 1999. The company is a spin-off of business intelligence maker Gilon Information Systems Ltd., a company that Sosna and Guy Greenberg founded in 1994.
Actimize’s core business is risk and compliance; i.e. spotting problems and risks for its customers. The company’s applications send alerts when information in an enterprise database does not comply with expectations. Demand for risk management software has grown rapidly in financial markets in the past two years, mainly because of new regulatory standards, the need for more credible reporting by public companies, and increased investment in enterprise IT systems.
NICE CEO Haim Shani said, "Bringing together Actimize's and NICE's solutions establishes NICE as an enterprise-wide analytics powerhouse. Our combined solution constitutes a technology breakthrough in processing, analyzing, and cross-referencing information from customer transactions and interactions. This is the only combination in the world, which for the first time will be able to take millions and millions of transactions and interactions, and handle huge masses of data, comprising a full view of the customer touch points with the organization.”
NICE added that Actimize will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary following completion of the transaction with its current management team remaining in place. Sosna will continue to serve as CEO, reporting directly to Haim Shani.
Sosna said, "Joining NICE is an important step in Actimize's growth and business strategy."
Carmel Ventures, which led the first financing round in Actimize, owns more than 25% of the company. Carmel Ventures will earn a return on its investment of more than $70 million, over 40% of the fund’s principle.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 2, 2007
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