Concerto and Melita Complete Merger, and Delist from NASDAQ

Following the completion of a $145.2 million merger between Concerto Software and Melita International earlier this week, the combined company announced it will operate as Concerto Software, a private entity, and will no longer traded on the NASDAQ market. Taking the company private is expected to enable Concerto Software to have greater flexibility and resources to focus on its business goal of becoming the global leader in the contact center market, while sustaining profitable growth, according to the company. Golden Gate Capital and Oak Investment Partners, private equity firms and majority holders of Melita International Ltd., the indirect parent of Melita International Inc., financed the merger and are expected to help provide any future capital that may be required. Combined, Concerto investment partners have more that $5 billion available to them. Michael Provenzanio, CFO of Concerto, says taking the company private was a strategic decision that will help it take a longer-term view without the short-term scrutiny of Wall St.: "Being private means that we do not have to worry about the costly and time-consuming work of reporting. Instead, we can focus on completing mergers and acquisitions more quickly in order to grow." Concerto has already established itself as having a great management team and track record as a public company, he continues. Provenzanio is not worried about customers or potential clients' fears about delisting: "We are not getting out of the public market because we've have not been successful--just the opposite. We've had eight consecutive quarters of meeting or exceeding Wall St. expectations." In fact, he says the company is not ruling out getting back into the public market at a later date, whether by establishing liquidity through an initial public offering or by being acquired by another company. "This is a move to accelerate our strategy to be the number one CIM provider, not a financial engineering exercise," he says. Jim Foy, president and CEO of Concerto, will lead the combined company, while Melita president and CEO George Landgrebe will become executive vice president, worldwide customer support at Concerto. The merger is expected to give existing customers access to a wider selection of CIM solutions, along with a beefed-up global support infrastructure. Concerto Software will continue to offer product enhancements and full support of all major product lines, including EnsemblePro, Unison, Ensemble, and Conversations. The combined company also claims it's one of the most cutting-edge providers of outbound dialing solutions for contact centers, with growing market share for its inbound, call-blending, email, and Web solutions.