Siebel Systems announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Natick, Massachusetts-based edocs.
The acquisition is expected to expand Siebel’s products and services offerings in the growing $3 billion market for eBilling and customer self-service applications.
Through the proposed acquisition, Siebel expects to deliver one of the industry’s most comprehensive self-service solutions, enabling companies to improve their customers’ experience and reduce costs and churn. The proposed acquisition will also strengthen Siebel Systems’ offerings of multi-channel customer-facing solutions. The acquisition is fully aligned with Siebel’s growth strategy to provide a broader and deeper range of front-office solutions that deliver demonstrable business value for its customers.
Under the terms of the deal, Siebel Systems will initially pay $115 million in cash to edocs shareholders. Additional payments, based on achieving revenue and other contractual milestones, may be paid in 2006. Excluding the impact of a one-time merger-related charge, the company expects the transaction will reduce Q1 2005 earnings by approximately $0.01 per share. Additionally, the company currently expects a one-time charge in Q1 2005 estimated at $8-10 million, although the company is still completing its asset allocation analysis and this estimate is subject to change. Siebel Systems expects the transaction to be approximately neutral to earnings for the remainder of 2005. The Siebel Systems and edocs boards of directors have approved the acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close in early Q1 2005.
“Our acquisition of edocs will provide global organizations with powerful solutions that can dramatically increase the efficiency of their service and billing channels, reduce call center costs and enhance customer satisfaction and retention,” said J. Michael Lawrie, CEO, Siebel Systems. “This acquisition brings together a leading provider of eBilling and customer self-service solutions with a leading provider of customer service, call center, and field service automation solutions, and is consistent with Siebel Systems’ strategy to expand our front-office solutions. The complementary strengths of Siebel and edocs will help companies capitalize on the dramatic growth in the popularity of customer self-service interactions.”
“We are delighted at the opportunity to join Siebel Systems, the market leader in CRM, and look forward to working together to take customer self-service to the next level,” said Kevin Laracey, President and CEO, edocs. “Our shared focus on leveraging advanced technology platforms to provide customer value in key industries makes this acquisition an ideal fit. Combining our product lines allows us to rapidly bring to market critical functionality that can save companies millions of dollars in operating costs while allowing them to offer a highly differentiated customer experience that will attract new customers and strengthen existing relationships.”
edocs provides a comprehensive software platform for eBilling and customer self-service. edocs’ solutions have been deployed at leading organizations worldwide, such as British Telecom, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, KPN, Toyota Financial Services, TXU, and Verizon Wireless in some of the most rigorous business and complex technical environments. Its offerings are built on one of the industry’s most scalable, standards-based J2EE self-service platforms, with a total cost of ownership (TCO) lower than competing packaged or custom-developed solutions.
Siebel Systems plans to deliver an integrated solution that will leverage the domain expertise, complementary technologies and successful track record of both companies and initially target the communications, financial services, healthcare and energy industries. By integrating its market-leading CRM and business intelligence solutions with edocs’ comprehensive eService, self-service and eBilling platform, Siebel Systems will be able to provide one of the industry’s most complete and effective customer self-service solutions to help companies drive higher levels of customer satisfaction and adoption.
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