Witness Makes an Offer to Buy Eyretel

Witness Systems, which provides performance optimization services, announced Wednesday that it has made an offer to buy all shares of Eyretel, a U.K.--based provider of compliancy and recording solutions. The acquisition of the company, valued at approximately $59.8 million, would make Witness the market share leader in the global contact center recording market, according to market data compiled by research firm Datamonitor. In addition to creating a market share leader the acquisition also gives Witness a much greater geographic scope, says Ryan Hollenbeck, vice president of corporate communications at Witness. "Eyretel's business is mostly in Europe and the Middle East, while we focus on the Americas," Hollenbeck says. "There's very little overlap, which provides a great opportunity to reach many new customers." According to Hollenbeck, since the companies offer different support solutions, Witness expects many cross-selling opportunities between the two customer bases. Hollenback says that almost all of Eyretel's operations will continue in the combined company, and that Witness plans to retain much of the personnel at Eyretel. Nicholas Discombe, CEO of Eyretel, has agreed to become president and COO of the combined organization. The acquisition is subject to review by the various regulatory authorities in the United States and the U.K.; Hollenbeck could offer no expected time frame of the closure of the deal.