Digital engagement solutions provider LivePerson Inc. (Nasdaq: LPSN); TASE: LPSN) has acquired Contact At Once! (CAO) for $65 million. ContactAt Once! is a software company with a cloud-based platform that connects consumers to businesses across a variety of websites through chat, mobile and video. Headquartered in New York City, LivePerson's development office is in Ra'anana.
US company CAO is a major chat provider in the automotive industry with a customer base that includes over 13,000 dealerships, many auto manufacturers and most major car search and advertising sites. The company is also making early inroads into the real estate industry, particularly in the multi-family apartment rentals and homebuilder verticals. CAO’s platform enables consumers to initiate chat with a merchant from a variety of search, content aggregation, and other multi-listing websites.
The acquisition of CAO adds unique digital engagement capability for online marketplaces and expands LivePerson's client base. LivePerson will pay $43 million cash and $22 million in shares. CAO may also receive up to $5 million in milestone payments.
LivePerson CEO Robert LoCascio said, “CAO’s technology is unique because it enables for the routing and tracking of the chat from multiple websites directly to an individual business through a single user interface. Their technology and vision align strongly to our core strategy of enabling a greater number of consumers to engage businesses in real-time from any digital channel, across any device. With our combined customer bases and platform capabilities, we see a lot of opportunity for growth into new and existing verticals.”
CAO CEO John Hanger. ““We are excited about joining forces with LivePerson, a company that consistently demonstrates technology leadership in the arena of proactive consumer engagement, driven by a patented behavioral targeting engine,” said Our customers will benefit from LivePerson’s financial strength and commitment to innovation. We also look forward to leveraging the synergies of our combined customer bases and capitalizing on the Company’s international infrastructure to expand overseas."
LivePerson also reported its third quarter financial results today. Revenue was $52.8 million in the third quarter, up 17% from the corresponding quarter of last year. Net loss for the third quarter of 2014 widened to $1.1 million ($0.02 per share), from a net loss of $0.7 million ($0.01 per share) in the corresponding quarter of 2013.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 6, 2014
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