Unified solutions provider Avaya will buy Spoken Communications to help migrate its call centre technology to the cloud.
This announcement was made at Avaya Engage, taking place this week in New Orleans, in the US.
Last year, Avaya announced it had commenced a formal proceeding to restructure its balance sheet to better position itself for the future.
It filed voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, which allows for protection from creditors. It is given to a business in financial difficulties for a limited period to allow it to reorganise.
At the end of last year, it emerged from Chapter 11, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this month.
Acquiring Spoken Communications and therefore the company's artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property supercharges Avaya's embrace of emerging technologies.
The company did not disclose the value of the deal but said it will be funded with cash on hand. The transaction includes over 170 patents and patent applications.
Spoken Communications provides contact centre as a service solutions to enterprise customers and is a provider of transformative real-time customer experience management applications built on conversational AI.
Its specialised software allows for voice to be recorded on customer care calls, transcribed and summarised so that after-call work-time is reduced.
"With this acquisition, Avaya's large contact centre customer base around the world will have a clear migration path to the cloud," said Jim Chirico, president and CEO of Avaya.
"Customers can retain all the functionality of their existing premises-based technology and seamlessly migrate that functionality, at their pace, to achieve all the benefits of cloud."
Spoken's cloud-native, multi-tenant architecture is seamlessly integrated with Avaya Aura and Elite technologies.
"This transaction is a critical step in positioning our customers, partners and new cloud business for increasing success," says Mercer Rowe, senior VP and GM of cloud for Avaya.
"We are now moving at cloud speed, capitalising on Avaya's momentum to give our customers greater choice and flexibility in how they buy and consume our solutions, with the same experience whether it's on-premises, in the public or private cloud, or a hybrid model."
Upon completion of the transaction, Rowe will lead the combined Spoken and Avaya cloud teams.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of fiscal 2018.
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