A Q&A with Verint's Jasen Williams About the Thoma Bravo Acquisition

Jasen Williams, senior vice president of corporate marketing at Verint, discussed some of the ramifications of Thoma Bravo's acquisition of Verint in an interview with DestinationCRM at the end of the Verint Engage25 conference in Orlando, Fla., last week.

Thoma Bravo, one of the largest software-focused investors in the world, with approximately $184 billion in assets, has acquired Verint in an all-cash transaction valued at $2 billion. Rumors of a potential deal began to surface in early July.

Following the close of the transaction, Verint's assets will be combined with assets from Calabrio, which Thoma Bravo acquired in 2021 for an undisclosed amount. The two companies will form one entity offering artificial intelligence-driven customer experience solutions for workforce performance, conversation intelligence, and customer experience automation.

DestinationCRM: Where do Verint and Calabrio compete and where do they have synergies?

Williams: Broadly, Verint is very good in context, CX automation, and workforce engagement. We have a lot of capabilities, including AI, automation of knowledge management, voice of the customer, etc. The companies that use our solutions tend to skew up market, including 85 of the Fortune 100. Calabrio is very good at workforce engagement, particularly in the mid-market. The mid-market is their bread and butter.

DestinationCRM: Medallia, which was purchased earlier by Thoma Bravo, is in a very similar business. Has there been any discussion of how Medallia will fit in?

Williams: There's been no discussion about Medallia.

DestinationCRM: Cultures of companies can clash in mergers and acquisitions. Can you describe the cultures of Verint and Calabrio?

Williams: I don't know anything about the culture of Calabrio. Historically, the industry has been fluid, with people moving back and forth between various companies. Verint's culture has been one of being humble, probably too humble because we should probably take more credit for the amazing things that we have done.

DestinationCRM: Any ideas on where the headquarters will be, who the top executives will be, etc?

Williams: No. On those types of questions—the management team, the headquarters, what the corporate colors will be, the brand name, etc.—twe haven't gotten that far. We can't even collaborate with Calabrio on that because we are still competing until the merger is completed.

DestinationCRM: When is the merger expected to be completed?

Williams: By the end of this year, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals.

DestinationCRM: With most mergers and acquisitions, there is some layoffs due to duplicate work. Has there any discussion of that?

Williams: We haven't had any conversations about it because it's all unknown. What Thoma Bravo has talked about is growth. In our press release about the acquisition, [Verint CEO Dan] Bodner mentioned that we're in the early days of CX automation and AI, particularly in the contact center. Every conversation we've had so far has focused on growth, growth, growth, growth, growth. We haven't talked about organizational structures, systems integrations or product rationalization yet.>

DestinationCRM: Any other thoughts?

Williams: Like Dan said [during the Engage 2025 opening session], the Thoma Bravo purchase validates our CX automation strategy. Beyond that, the specifics are unknown.