Fusion to Expand Cloud Offerings in Fast-Growing $4.7 Billion Contact Center Market
NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 03/28/16 -- Fusion (NASDAQ: FSNN), a leading provider of cloud services, announced today that it will significantly expand its product offering in the $4.7 billion Contact Center market through the acquisition of Technology for Business Corporation (TFB). The Manhattan Beach, California-based company provides industry leading Contact Center solutions to over 500 enterprises, a significant number of which are Fortune 500 enterprises and large government entities throughout the U.S. and internationally. The acquisition will immediately move Fusion into a leadership position within the rapidly growing Contact Center market, and provides substantial cross-selling and up-selling opportunities as TFB's customers are seamlessly migrated to Fusion's cloud solutions platform.
Fusion and TFB have a signed a definitive agreement for Fusion to acquire the intellectual property and assets of TFB, with TFB's CEO, Charles Cuggino and TFB's VP of Sales, Will Jones, joining Fusion to lead the continued growth of Fusion's Contact Center business. TFB's software development team will also join Fusion. Fusion expects the transaction to close within 30 days.
Matthew Rosen, Fusion's Chief Executive Officer, said, "The Contact Center market is one which we have long targeted and determined there is significant demand for migration to the cloud. We believe our core strengths in integrating voice, connectivity and security into a powerful cloud based contact center application are critical success factors and provide Fusion with a unique and compelling advantage. The most recent North American Call Center Survey, published by industry organization CCNG International, reported that about 78% of all contact centers today are premise-based, but 70% of these plan to move to the cloud. This presents a large opportunity to expand our reach into the enterprise and mid-market as Contact Center sales grow 26% year over year to a projected $14.7 billion by 2020. We also believe that following this transaction's close, Fusion will be the only cloud services provider delivering an enterprise Contact Center solution that is fully integrated with an advanced cloud voice platform, with the connectivity required to access the application, and with the security needed to protect business-critical customer data."
Fusion's Contact Center solution will include a fully integrated cloud communications and connectivity package, including critical benefits to mid-size as well as larger enterprises, such as:
- providing a migration path from facilities-based to cloud-based Contact Centers
- meeting specialized compliance and other requirements of key vertical industries, including healthcare and government
- delivering a full suite of robust features, including outbound and inbound campaign capability, softphone control, simultaneous screen transfer, CRM integration
- offering comprehensive data reports to support business analytics, and real-time as well as historical reporting, with easily customizable templates
- supporting integration to CRM and call recording
Don Hutchins, Fusion's President and Chief Operating Officer, said, "TFB met Fusion's criteria for acquisitions: adding a high quality business customer base to Fusion's existing customer base, a strong product line extension, valuable technology assets, and a strong team to drive further expansion of the platform," Mr. Hutchins continued. "We expect to quickly integrate TFB's infrastructure into Fusion so we can immediately offer a full, cloud-based Contact Center solution both to existing Fusion and TFB customers, and to new customers who recognize the sizable benefits of working with a single source cloud solution provider. We anticipate this acquisition will contribute positively to Fusion's adjusted EBITDA."
