Here are four recent mergers and acquisitions that caught our attention.
LivePerson Inc. is back in action in Austin. The New York-based company, which is publicly traded on Nasdaq, had scooped up Austin startup Conversable back in 2018.
On Oct. 27, the company announced that it has acquired Austin-based Tenfold for an undisclosed amount. The startup, legally known as Callinize Inc, has a customer experience integration platform used by Wayfair, LogMeIn and T-Mobile, among others.
Tenfold's platform connects phone systems with CRMs and other enterprise management systems. The software brings data from those systems into a dashboard to equip customer service representatives with information from internal programs that may show the customer's history with the company and other relevant data. It also helps decision makers spot new ways to solidify customer relationships and analyze their progress across a variety of metrics.
Tenfold, led by CEO Jeff Cotten, had raised about $34 million since its founding in 2015 by Blake Robertson, Dan Sincavage, Patrick Hogan and Sean Pinegar, according to Crunchbase.
Its backers have included Austin's Next Coast Ventures, as well as Andreessen Horowitz, Geekdom Fund and Salesforce Ventures.
"We've solved a difficult challenge in delivering the most relevant data right into every customer interaction, and with LivePerson, we'll expand this model to messaging to deliver a true end-to-end customer experience platform," Cotten said in a statement.
LivePerson also acquired San Francisco-based VoiceBase, which developed a voice analytics platform.
— Brent Wistrom
Fast-growing Raleigh, North Carolina-based financial reporting software firm Insightsoftware Inc. is zeroing in on yet another acquisition — its biggest yet, said CEO Jim Triandiflou.
Its buy of Austin-based Magnitude Software Inc., an operational reporting firm, is expected to close in November. Triandiflou declined to provide financials on the deal, but said Magnitude’s strength “is with really large companies.” It partners with firms such as SAP (NYSE: SAP) and Oracle (NYSE: ORCL).
Insight, on the other hand, has as its “bread and butter” mid-market companies.
“That’s a great combination,” he said.
With the addition of Magnitude, Insightsoftware is at about 2,000 employees, with close to half located outside of the U.S. That ratio got a big boost from Magnitude, as it brings with it a 250-person operation in India.
PEnews.com pegged the value of the deal at $477 million.
For more on this deal, check out Triangle Business Journal.
— Lauren Ohnesorge
NI has purchased NH Research LLC, which is based in California and makes high-power testing systems for things such as electric vehicles and batteries.
Austin-based NI, otherwise known as National Instruments Corp. (Nasdaq: NATI), said in an Oct. 28 announcement that the buyout closed Oct. 19. Financial terms were not disclosed.
NI said it is also buying the EV Systems business of Heinzinger GmbH, a German company making battery testing systems. The deal is expected to close in next year's first quarter.
NI said the three companies "serve highly complementary positions" when it comes to testing components for the automotive industry, while expanding its capabilities with EVs, batteries and sustainable energy. NI said it will fund both deals "through a combination of its existing revolving credit facility and cash on hand." Roughly 150 employees will be added to the company.
— Will Anderson
Austin-based B2B software company Idera Inc. announced Oct. 28 its latest acquisition. It is scooping up Seattle-area startup BitTitan Inc., which makes cloud and data migration products. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. This appears to be Idera's fifth acquisition this year and its 24th since its founding in 2000, according to Crunchbase.
Austin-based workforce management company TCP Software said Oct. 21 it acquired Wisconsin-based online employee scheduling software company Aladtec Inc. for an undisclosed amount. TCP Software, founded in 1988 and led by CEO Eric Thurston, is backed by PE firm Providence Equity Partners, according to Crunchbase. The company operates legally as TimeClock Plus LLC. A spokesperson said after this story was published that it was TCP's second acquisition in roughly 10 months — in December 2020, it purchased Humanity.com Inc., an online employee scheduling software company.
— Brent Wistrom
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional info from a spokesperson for TCP Software.
