Interactive Intelligence to Acquire Software Company
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis-based Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ) is acquiring a North Carolina software company specializing in cloud-based social communications. The deal for OrgSpan Inc. is expected to close in the next month. Interactive Intelligence Founder and Chief Executive Officer Don Brown is the majority owner of OrgSpan. The News Observer in Durham, North Carolina reports OrgSpan has 40 workers.April 17, 2014
News Release
INDIANAPOLIS & DURHAM, N.C.–Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ), a global provider of software and services designed to improve the customer experience, has entered into a letter of intent to acquire OrgSpan Inc., a privately held company that offers cloud-based enterprise social communications solutions.
Subject to the negotiation of definitive documentation approval by the Interactive Intelligence audit committee and board, and the satisfaction of customary conditions, the companies expect to close the transaction within 30 days.
“OrgSpan develops socially relevant communications products that our customers have found valuable and unique,” said Bill Gildea, Interactive Intelligence senior vice president of corporate development. “These social customer service components, together with the core cloud architecture that OrgSpan has developed, are important to the foundation of our cloud offerings moving forward.
“Additionally, this acquisition will streamline our development efforts and give us the benefit of OrgSpan’s numerous patent filings and access to its customer and prospect base,” concluded Gildea.
Among its solutions, OrgSpan offers OrgSpan Select, which enables customers to search and view agent social profiles by multiple criteria, creating new and more effective ways of connecting customers and contact center agents. The company also offers OrgSpan Connect, a unified company directory of OrgSpan Connect users that includes information-rich personal profiles designed to improve employee collaboration.
Interactive Intelligence plans to continue to sell and support OrgSpan Select and OrgSpan Connect, both on a standalone basis and as add-on applications to its cloud and on-premises IP business communications solutions. Interactive Intelligence will also incorporate these products into its future cloud offerings.
OrgSpan customers will continue to use the same sales, support and service channels until further notice.
“We want our customers to know that they will continue to get the same high-quality service and support they’ve come to expect,” said Jeff Swartz, co-founder and president of OrgSpan. “In fact, we anticipate even greater responsiveness with the additional resources this acquisition provides, plus our customers will get easier access to Interactive’s broad range of contact center, unified communications, and business process automation solutions.”
Interactive Intelligence plans to integrate OrgSpan employees into its organization across multiple department lines. OrgSpan employees will remain at their current location in Durham, North Carolina. Interactive Intelligence expects all integration activities to be completed this calendar year and does not expect the transaction to have a material impact on revenues and other financial results in 2014.
As previously disclosed, the independent audit committee of Interactive Intelligence has been re-assessing for some time the relationship between Interactive Intelligence and OrgSpan, which is majority-owned by Dr. Donald E. Brown, Interactive Intelligence founder and CEO. The audit committee has been assisted by its own independent valuation consultant and its own independent counsel. The audit committee has negotiated the letter of intent on behalf of Interactive Intelligence, and the committee’s approval of a transaction will be subject to receipt of a satisfactory fairness opinion from the committee’s independent valuation consultant.
The company will provide additional information when the definitive agreement is completed and approved by all parties.
About OrgSpan
OrgSpan Inc. was founded in 2011 by Jeff Swartz, who previously was an Interactive Intelligence developer. The company develops cloud-based enterprise social communications solutions. Its solutions include OrgSpan Select, which enables customers to search and view agent social profiles by skill-set, years of experience, wait time, etc.; and OrgSpan Connect, a unified company directory of OrgSpan Connect users that includes personal profiles containing details such as skills, certifications, location, reporting structure, etc. The company also offers OrgSpan Connect CIC, a unified company directory of OrgSpan Connect users, and users of the Interactive Intelligence IP communications software suite, Customer Interaction Center™ (CIC). OrgSpan employs 40 people and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. It can be reached at +1 855.674.7726, or on the Web at http://www.orgspan.com/.
About Interactive Intelligence
Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ) is a global provider of software and services designed to improve the customer experience. The company’s 6,000-plus customers worldwide have benefitted from its cloud and on-premises solutions for contact center, unified communications, and business process automation. Interactive Intelligence is among Software Magazine’s 2013 Top 500 Global Software and Service Providers, and has received a Frost & Sullivan Company of the Year Award for the last five consecutive years. In addition, Glassdoor honored Interactive Intelligence with its 2014 Employees’ Choice Award as one of the Best Places to Work in the U.S., and Mashable ranked Interactive Intelligence second on its 2014 list of the Seven Best Tech Companies to Work For. The company was founded in 1994 and employs more than 1,800 people worldwide. Interactive Intelligence is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and has offices throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. It can be reached at +1 317.872.3000 or info@inin.com. Visit Interactive Intelligence on the Web at www.inin.com; on Twitter at www.inin.com/twitter; on Facebook at www.inin.com/facebook; or on LinkedIn at www.inin.com/linkedin.
Source: Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ)