NICE has moved to acquire fellow CCaaS provider LiveVox for a reported $350MN fee.
While NICE did not disclose that figure, prominent CX Analyst Nicolas de Kouchkovsky took to LinkedIn to reveal the supposed price tag.
Yet, putting the price tag aside, NICE’s motivation seems to be soaking up LiveVox’s outbound capabilities and expertise.
Indeed, fellow analysts have also noted how the CCaaS Magic Quadrant leader will benefit from gaining one of the most advanced outbound dialers in the space.
Despite CXone already having such a dialer, it has not made any significant investment or R&D in the area since releasing its Personal Connection Outbound Dialer in 2013.
Now, it has skipped ahead of the queue to pair its often lauded inbound offering with a premier outbound service to further its CCaaS leadership claims.
Moreover, the vendor has revealed its plans to use this as a platform to spread conversational AI “across all types of engagements”.
“Today, we are taking another major step in making smart conversational AI a reality,” said Barak Eilam, CEO of NICE.
“The era of Digital Engagement is already here, and we are excited to enable organizations to propel their Digital Engagement and Conversational AI forward.
In joining forces with LiveVox, we now have the strongest and broadest proactive outreach portfolio.
Alongside this extensive outbound portfolio, LiveVox offers a well-rounded platform.
Indeed, according to a recent industry analysis of 23 CCaaS vendors by Ventana Research, it offers the third-best TCO/ROI – only behind NICE and Genesys.
The researcher also lauded LiveVox’s interaction routing and “strong focus” on providing strategic value for existing and prospective customers.
As such, there may be many further possibilities for NICE to augment CXone and layers of expertise to haul into the business.
Sharing this sentiment, John DiLullo, CEO of LiveVox, said: “This is great news for our customers, employees, and shareholders.
NICE is an amazing organization, and its breadth, reach, and commitment to continuous innovation promise to amplify our growth and the capabilities of the complementary solutions we can bring to market together.
Until now, LiveVox has amassed a base of hundreds of enterprise customers, making significant inroads into the North American market – albeit not too far beyond.
The vendor did so across the span of two decades in the space while amassing a wealth of contact center expertise.
Yet, the past couple of years have not been so kind to the business – as is the overwhelming trend across the CX and enterprise tech space – with its shares dropping 66 percent since its pandemic highs of 2021.
Thankfully, the vendor has now sided with NICE, a vendor with possibly the healthiest balance sheet across the CCaaS space – giving LiveVox customers a thick security blanket.
However, some will not be as fortunate in such a crowded market – and de Kouchkovsky predicts much more M&A activity as a result, as evident in the following LinkedIn post.
After Avaya and Lifesize endured bankruptcy processions earlier this year, this worrying trend will be one to keep an eye on.
