Verint Systems Gains Key FTC Approval for Proposed Acquisition of Witness Systems

By Mae Kowalke

TMCnet Associate Editor

 

Analytics software provider Verint Systems (News - Alert) announced Monday that it was granted a key Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approval for its proposed acquisition of Witness Systems, a company that offers workforce optimization solutions.

 

More specifically, the FTC  “granted early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended, with respect to the previously announced Agreement and Plan of Merger with Witness Systems (News - Alert), Inc.,” Verint said in a notice to the press.

 

Verint president and CEO Dan Bodner expressed his excitement about the expected convergence of Witness’ and Verint’s product offerings, the goal being to create a broader portfolio aimed at customer-centric enterprises.

 

“Since announcing the combination several weeks ago, we have received extremely positive feedback from employees, customers and partners, and we remain firmly committed to supporting both companies' existing customers and leveraging the talent of each organization to build next generation solutions for the contact center, branches and back office customer operations,” Bodner said in a statement.

Verint and Witness announced the proposed acquisition Feb. 12. Approval is still pending from the Office of Fair Trading in the U.K., and from Witness stockholders. If all goes as planned, the merger is slated for closing during the second quarter of 2007.

 

Verint is headquartered in Melvile, New York. The company serves more than 1,000 organizations in more than 50 countries worldwide. It specializes in “actionable intelligence” through collection, retention and analysis of voice, fax, video, e-mail, Internet and data transmissions. Verint’s product portfolio includes Nextiva, a video management platform; and ULTRA, a call recording platform for enterprises.

Witness is headquartered in Roswell, Georgia—and has branches in Massachusetts, California, Spain, Mexico, Canada. The company’s flagship product, Impact 360, is a workforce optimization platform that captures, analyzes, and enables users to share and act upon information across the enterprise. More than 60 percent of Witness’ customers are Fortune 100 firms; the company’s clients include Bank of America, Canon, eBay (News - Alert), Fannie Mae, Hilton, JetBlue, Pfizer, and Saab Cars USA.

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Mae Kowalke previously wrote for Cleveland Magazine in Ohio and The Burlington Free Press in Vermont. To see more of her articles, please visit Mae Kowalke’s columnist page. Also check out her Wireless Mobility blog.