Golden Gate Capital sponsors $1.0 billion take-private of Aspect Communications by Concerto Software
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (July 6, 2005) – Golden Gate Capital announces the $1.0 billion acquisition of Aspect Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: ASPT), a leading provider of inbound call center software and services. In connection with the closing of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, Golden Gate Capital’s portfolio company, Concerto Software, a global provider of contact center solutions, will acquire Aspect Communications.
David Dominik, managing director of Golden Gate Capital, said, “The merger will create the world’s largest company solely focused on contact center software and services. The combined company will be an industry force and innovator in mission-critical contact center technologies such as voice-over-IP, automatic call distribution (ACD), workforce management, outbound dialing, and customer self-service.”
James D. Foy, president and chief executive officer of Concerto Software, will remain in that position following the merger. Gary Barnett, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aspect, is expected to remain with the new company in a key executive position.
James D. Foy, Concerto’s president and CEO, stated, “With greater resources and scale, we will offer customers a more robust product suite, an expanded services and support infrastructure, and increased investment in research and development — making the new company uniquely positioned to be the contact center solutions provider of choice. Concerto has a proven track record of integrating people and products following acquisitions. Given the customer-centric philosophy that Concerto and Aspect share, we anticipate a rapid, successful transition.”
Golden Gate Capital continues to be one of the world’s most active software investors. Aspect represents Golden Gate Capital’s 28th software acquisition and sixth software public-to-private transaction over the last four years. With the acquisition of Aspect, Golden Gate Capital’s software portfolio will aggregate to approximately $2 billion of revenue. On a consolidated basis, this would make Golden Gate Capital’s software portfolio the tenth largest software group in the world.
Lehman Brothers acted as exclusive financial advisor to Golden Gate Capital. Deutsche Bank Securities and JP Morgan acted as financial advisors to Concerto Software. Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal advisor to Golden Gate Capital and Concerto Software.
The transaction will be financed through a combination of equity contributed by Golden Gate Capital and Oak Investment Partners, $475 million of senior bank debt financing led by JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank Securities and $250 million of second lien financing led by JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers. Wells Fargo Foothill acted as documentation agent for the senior bank debt and D.B. Zwirn Finance acted as administrative agent for the second lien debt.
About Golden Gate Capital
Golden Gate Capital is a private equity firm with over $2.6 billion of capital under management dedicated to investing in high-growth businesses in change-intensive industries. The firm’s charter is to partner with world-class management teams to make equity investments in situations where there is a demonstrable opportunity to significantly enhance a company’s value. Over the past four years Golden Gate Capital has completed 28 software acquisitions aggregating to approximately $2.0 billion in revenue. For more information, visit www.goldengatecap.com.
About Concerto
Concerto Software, the founder of the contact center industry, is 100 percent focused on providing proven, innovative products and services that enable key business processes including customer service, collections, and sales and telemarketing for in-house and outsourced contact centers. Each day, companies around the globe conduct more than 50 million customer interactions using Concerto’s flexible, reliable solutions for automatic call distribution (ACD), predictive dialing, workforce management, analytics, interactive voice response (IVR) and multi-channel contact. Headquartered in Westford, Mass., Concerto Software has operations across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, visit www.concerto.com.
About Aspect
Aspect is a leading provider of contact center solutions and services that enable businesses to manage and optimize customer communications. Aspect’s global customer base includes more than two-thirds of the Fortune 50 and leading corporations in a range of industries, including transportation, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, retail and outsourcing, as well as large government agencies. The company’s leadership is based on two decades of expertise. Aspect is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with offices in countries around the world. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.