Contact Center M&A: Interactive Intelligence Buys Bay Bridge Decision

Financial terms weren't provided, except that it was an all-cash transaction and closed Aug. 1. Bay Bridge, which was founded in 2000, provides forecasting and planning tools to help contact center managers efficiently deploy agents and deliver service. Its niche competitors include business intelligence players like Cogentium and Softel.

Dr. Donald Brown, Interactive's founder and CEO, said Bay Bridge's assets would help Interactive Intelligence offer a more strategic solution for midsize and large contact center customers.

"As the leading vendor in its industry, supplying the kind of advanced functionality required by the world's top brands, Bay Bridge makes for an ideal acquisition that will help our customers further streamline their technology sourcing and implementations, while giving them even greater return-on-investment," Brown said in a statement.

[Related: Interactive Intelligence: Test Drive Our CaaS Platform ]

Bay Bridge will continue to sell and support its CenterBridge family of products, while its forecasting technology will also be used in Interactive's Interaction Optimizer work-force-management platform. Current Bay Bridge customers will continue to be supported by Bay Bridge's existing staff, Interactive Intelligence said, and Bay Bridge's Annapolis, Md.-based office will be maintained.

Interactive Intelligence, based in Indianapolis, has built momentum in the contact center channel despite tough competition with bigger segment players like Cisco, Avaya and Genesys and a host of other competitors like Aspect, Siemens, Huawei and SAP.

The company has about 300 solution provider partners around the world and has continued to fine-tune its strategy for unified communications and mobility, this spring launching a mobile application delivery platform, Interaction Mobilizer. For its fiscal Q2, ended June 30, Interactive reported a 26 percent year-over-year increase in orders and an 88 percent year-over-year increase in cloud-based orders, which comprised a quarter of overall orders. Its revenue for the quarter was $54.8 million.

Among recent acquisitions, Interactive also bought a Netherlands-based VAR, Brightware, in April, and the contact center business of a South Africa-based VAR, ATIO, in January.

PUBLISHED ON AUG. 10, 2012