Verint Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: VRNT) today announced a major strategic move, which will turn it into a company with a $1 billion annual turnover: it has acquired Kana Software Inc. for $514 million in cash. The deal will be closed by the end of April. Verint will finance the acquisition with $100 million from its cash reserves and the rest in bank loans and from its unused credit line, which will boost its debt to over $1 billion.
Kana Software, a developer of on-premises and cloud customer service solutions, was founded in Silicon Valley in 1996. It has 600 employees.
"We believe that acquiring Kana would allow Verint to offer a holistic customer engagement strategy powered by Actionable Intelligence, providing significant value for our customers and partners. Our complementary solutions represent a comprehensive offering to help optimize customer engagement," said Verint CEO Dan Bodner. "We have been impressed with KANA and share a common vision for our respective markets, including a firm commitment to our customers. We also believe there is a strong cultural fit between the two companies and a foundation for a successful future together, for both our current and prospective customers, as well as our employees."
Kana Software's customers are mid-sized and large enterprises. Its solutions are based on the connection and unification of data across different channels of communications between a company or brand with its customers, including agents, the Internet, social networks, and mobile. This reduces the time in handling customers and improves customer satisfaction. The company has 900 customers and 250 government agencies worldwide, some of which are also Verint customers.
Kana is currently owned by US private equity fund Accel-KKR, which is based in Silicon Valley, and manages a $2 billion portfolio of technology companies. It acquired Kana in January 2010 for just $41 million. Following the takeover, Kana acquired several companies with synergetic operations in Ireland, the Netherlands, and other countries.
At the end of Verint's third fiscal quarter in October, it had $375 million in cash and $645 million in long-term debt. The interest rate on the debt is 4%, after the company refinanced the debt in 2013.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 6, 2014
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