Calabrio, a leading provider of customer engagement and analytics software, and KKR, a leading global investment firm, announced today that they have entered into a definitive purchase agreement whereby KKR will acquire Calabrio. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 2007, Calabrio provides products and services to help companies better understand their customers and leverage insights to catalyze growth. The Calabrio ONE® software suite is a unified workforce optimization (WFO) solution — including call recording, quality management, workforce management and voice-of-the-customer analytics — that records, captures and analyzes customer engagement center interactions to improve the customer experience and drive top-line business growth. Calabrio solutions are built on an intuitive, web-based architecture that positions and accelerates the contact center as an epicenter for customer insight. The company is a member of the Cisco Solution Partner Program and the Avaya DevConnect Program, and recently announced a global strategic partnership with Five9.
Calabrio has been recognized with a number of industry accolades, including being named a “Leader” in the 2015 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Engagement Center Workforce Optimization, on Star Tribune’s Top Workplaces list for three consecutive years, winning TMC’s CUSTOMER magazine 2016 CRM Excellence Award and named Frost & Sullivan’s 2016 Workforce Optimization Solutions Company of the Year.
“We have worked to transform contact centers into customer engagement centers and we pride ourselves on empowering everyone in an organization — from contact center agents to the CEO — with easy-to-use tools that provide companies with a better understanding of their customer to help them grow,” said Tom Goodmanson, president and CEO of Calabrio. “KKR shares our vision of putting the customer at the center of corporate strategy and we look forward to leveraging its deep technology industry knowledge and experience to fulfill our mission.”
He added, “We also want to thank Split Rock Partners and BlueStream Ventures for their 2007 investment in our business. Without their initial belief in our vision, we would not be in the position we find ourselves today.”
More than 4,000 companies worldwide trust Calabrio with their multi-channel contact centers, including Boeing, Maersk, REI and VITAS Healthcare.
“Evaluating data to measure and improve upon success is not only the direction the WFO market is heading, but where the world is heading,” said Vincent Letteri, director at KKR and a member of KKR’s technology team. “From its start, Calabrio has been forward-thinking in its innovative approach to customer engagement through analytical insights. We look forward to working with the team to continue to build upon its pioneering model of customer service.”
A 2015 PwC survey of CEOs ranked data mining and analytics as the second most strategically important digital technology and organization capability, only behind mobile technologies for customer engagement. According to the survey, CEOs also believe that data and analytics is the most important capability for delivering a better customer experience and business efficiencies.
John Park, director at KKR and a member of KKR’s technology team, added, “Calabrio has become one of the fastest-growing, quality companies in workforce optimization and customer engagement. With our partnership, we hope to accelerate the company’s growth even further as the world continues to move toward a customer engagement model through omnichannel integration.”
KKR has a long record of supporting technology companies, having invested over $17 billion of equity across the technology, media and telecom sectors since 1983. Recent software investments for the Firm include Darktrace (enterprise cyber threat defense software), Jitterbit (fast, agile integration solutions for the modern business),Mitchell International (technology and information solutions across the Property & Casualty industry), and Epicor (industry-specific enterprise software solutions in the manufacturing, distribution and retail sectors), a transaction subject to closing.
KKR is primarily making the investment from its eleventh Americas Private Equity investment fund. Perella Weinberg Partners L.P. served as exclusive financial advisor to KKR on the transaction. Houlihan Lokey served as exclusive financial advisor to Calabrio. The closing of the transaction is subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
About KKR
KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages investments across multiple asset classes including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit and hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world‐class people and driving growth and value creation at the asset level. KKR invests its own capital alongside its partners’ capital and brings opportunities to others through its capital markets business. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter@KKR_Co.
About Calabrio
Calabrio is a customer engagement software company that provides analytic insights to catalyze growth through customer service contact centers. The Calabrio ONE® software suite empowers everyone in an organization, from contact center agents to the CEO, with easy-to-use tools that provide a better understanding of the customer. Every customer interaction yields insights that expand customer-consciousness, which is how leading companies now drive growth and long-term corporate prosperity. Find more at http://calabrio.com/ and follow @Calabrio on Twitter.
