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Aspect Software in deal to acquire Voxeo; expands cloud, multi-channel self-service, IVR product and channel presence

The approximately $150 million acquisition expected to accelerate Aspect's delivery of cloud, hybrid and premise-based deployments; IVR, multi-channel and mobile self-service offerings will provide market-leading platform additions on a global scale to Aspect's award-winning contact centre solution suite; bolsters Aspect's leadership position in the outbound contact centre market.


Johannesburg, 16 Jul 2013

Aspect Software, a leading provider of fully integrated customer interaction management, workforce optimisation and back-office solutions, has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Voxeo Corporation, a leading provider of hosted and on-premise interactive voice response (IVR) solutions and a leading platform provider for communications-enabled business processes. Once complete, the acquisition is expected to significantly enhance Aspect's ability to support cloud, hybrid and premise-based deployments while adding a market-leading IVR and multi-channel self-service capability to the company's solution portfolio.

"Today's consumers are demanding more from the brands they interact with, taking more control over when, where and how they conduct that engagement, and enterprises are responding by seeking out vendors who can help them address these changes in the market. The acquisition of Voxeo, the market leader in robust cloud, on-premise and hybrid self-service platforms, furthers Aspect's continued commitment to provide innovative technology and solutions that support our customers' efforts to transform and deliver remarkable customer experiences," says Chris Koziol, president and general manager of the Interaction Management division at Aspect. "We share Voxeo's vision for the future of customer contact and are thrilled to expand and integrate our offerings to provide the kind of flexible solutions that deliver seamless service across proactive outbound, inbound, mobile and SMS channels."

As the only provider that offers hosted, private and hybrid cloud offerings, Voxeo will bring market-leading capabilities on a global scale to Aspect's portfolio, and will provide data centre infrastructure and network operation centre (NOC) capabilities that will help expand regional delivery of Aspect's cloud solutions and SaaS hosting capabilities. Voxeo will also bring a highly skilled executive team and employee base that will offer Aspect's customers and prospects high-value technical competencies and unique market understanding.

"By recognising the industry's appetite for flexible, hosted solutions early on, and developing a versatile and scalable technology platform to address the need, Voxeo has been able to achieve strong financial growth that has outpaced the broader market," says Bob Ingalls, chief executive officer of Voxeo. "However, we are coming across an increasing number of opportunities that require a broader call centre solution. The relationship with Aspect promises to give us a dynamic partner to continue our success by offering our customers a market-dominating combination of Aspect's innovative contact centre solutions with Voxeo's self-service and multi-channel platforms."

Both companies' customer bases are expected to benefit from the collaboration. The collaboration will enable Aspect to begin serving small and medium-sized businesses through more flexible solution delivery options, while current Voxeo customers will have interaction management, workforce optimisation and robust IVR capabilities within a single, comprehensive customer contact solution. A cross-functional team is already at work on product integration in order to bring the joint capabilities to market within the third quarter.

"This is exciting news for our respective partner communities as well," says Koziol. We've been very focused on the continued expansion of our global channel presence and programmes, and the depth and breadth of expertise offered by Voxeo's partners is expected to further strengthen Aspect's application development and partner community."

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Aspect

Aspect's fully integrated solution unifies the three most important facets of modern contact centre management: customer interaction management, workforce optimisation and back office. It helps the world's most demanding contact centres seamlessly align their people, processes and touch-points to deliver remarkable customer experiences. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.

Voxeo

Voxeo unlocks communications. We loathe the locks that make voice, SMS, instant messaging, Twitter, Web chat, mobile Web, unified communications and self-service applications difficult to create, manage, analyse, optimise and afford. Every day, we work to unlock the neglected value of these communications solutions with open standards, disruptive innovation and a passion for problem solving - fuelled by a company-wide obsession with customer success. We do so for more than 250 000 developers, 45 000 companies and half of the Fortune 100 from our headquarters in Orlando, Beijing, Cologne and London.

Follow Aspect on Twitter at @AspectSoftware. Read our blogs at http://blogs.aspect.com.

Aspect and the Aspect logo are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements contained in this document are "forward-looking statements" subject to the safe harbor created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements about the benefits of the proposed transaction and combined company, including future synergies, plans, objectives, expectations and intentions, and other statements relating to the proposed transaction and the combined company that are not historical facts. Where possible, the words "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "should", "will", "would", "planned", "estimated", "potential", "goal", "outlook", "may", "predicts", "could" or the negative of such terms, or other comparable expressions, as they relate to Aspect, Voxeo and the combined company after completion of the proposed business combination.

A number of factors could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to: (1) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the agreement and plan of merger for the business combination (the "Merger Agreement"); (2) the inability to complete the transactions contemplated by the agreement due to the failure to satisfy the conditions to closing in the Merger Agreement; (3) the risk that the proposed transaction disrupts current plans and operations as a result of the announcement and consummation of the transactions described herein; (4) the ability to recognise the anticipated benefits of the business combination, which may be affected by, among other things, competition, the ability of the combined company to grow and manage growth profitably, maintain relationships with suppliers and obtain adequate supply of products and retain its management and key employees; (5) costs related to the proposed business combination; (6) changes in applicable laws or regulations; (7) the possibility that Aspect may be adversely affected by other economic, business and/or competitive factors; and (8) other risks and uncertainties indicated in Aspect's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made, and Aspect and Voxeo undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Editorial contacts

Alison McDonald
PR Connections
(011) 468 1192
alison@pr.co.za
Henry McCracken
Aspect Software
henry.mccracken@aspect.com