Vancouver-based ZoomInfo acquired San Francisco-based Chorus.ai in a $575 million all-cash deal, the two companies announced Tuesday.
The deal is a major milestone for ZoomInfo since it will significantly broaden the company’s sales platform, said CEO Henry Schuck in a blog post. Schuck has made several major acquisitions over the years that have brought the company and its product to the point where the company was able to go public in spring 2020 and help usher back the IPO market.
“Combined with ZoomInfo’s intelligence data and go-to-market motions, Chorus will change how go-to-market teams search for target accounts, monitor account activity, trigger automated workflows, and expand buying committees,” Schuck said in his post. “In short, it will allow salespeople to enter meetings with complete intelligence about each participant and company.”
ZoomInfo (Nasdaq: ZI), which had 2020 revenue of $476.2 million, is a software platform used by sales teams to identify prospects. The company gathers and verifies business intelligence, including contact information, organization structure, budgets and strategic initiatives on different businesses. The idea is if sales people have the information they can better target their pitch. It has more than 20,000 customers globally.
In Chorus.ai, ZoomInfo gains added machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. Chorus.ai’s product “listens” to sales, support and other calls to glean insights that can be used to improve a pitch, sales training or activate an automated response. The deal is expected to be immediately accretive to ZoomInfo's business.
The deal increases ZoomInfo’s addressable market to $70 billion, the company said in a news release.
Chorus.ai has 170 employees. All will be integrated into ZoomInfo. Chorus is in a space known as conversation intelligence. It was founded in 2015 and has been awarded 14 patents. Chorus CEO Jim Benton is joining ZoomInfo as senior vice president of emerging products.
“ZoomInfo has a bold vision of delivering a world-class go-to-market platform that empowers companies to drive better execution and more revenue,” said Benton in a written statement. “Chorus will play a vital role in helping deliver on that promise with deep, AI-driven insights based on real interactions with prospects and customers, a previously untapped source of crucial data about their relationships.”
ZoomInfo has 1,800 employees in offices in Vancouver, Waltham, Massachusetts, and Israel.
The deal announcement also included two executive promotions. Chris Hays, who was promoted to chief operating officer in February, is now adding the title president. He has been with the company since 2016 and is based in Waltham.
Nir Keren was promoted to president of the Israel operations and chief technology officer. Keren is based in the company’s Ra’anana, Israel, office.
Investors seemed pleased with the transaction. ZoomInfo’s stock was trading up more than 1% in afternoon trading.
