January was off to a flying start with at least nine new M&As announced during the month, as well as two acquisitions being completed and one new funding activity taking place. The new year began auspiciously enough, with New York City-based Omnicom, the world’s second-largest media company, on January 2 closing its $850 million acquisition of Flywheel Digital, the Maryland-headquartered provider of a digital commerce platform. Read our coverage of that story.
Seven days later, on January 9, digital experience firm Acquia completed its acquisition of web governance company Monsido. The acquisition expands Acquia’s software capabilities in web content management by adding Monsido’s competencies in website accessibility and optimization. Both companies are based in Boston.
While the two completed transactions above represented acquisitions first initiated in 2023, at least nine acquisitions of significance relating to the CX space were announced in January 2024.
On January 8, customer service software provider Zendesk said it was acquiring Estonia-based Klaus, whose quality management solution helps customer support teams with conversation review and feedback collection. See our analysts’ take on the implications of the acquisition.
Related Article: 2023 Customer Experience Trends and A Look Ahead
The next day, January 9, saw Minneapolis, Minnesota-based workforce performance software firm Calabrio acquiring Wysdom, the virtual agent operations company headquartered in Toronto, Canada, known for its expertise in bot management software and solutions. The acquisition aims to accelerate Calabrio’s strategy in helping customers leverage AI and machine learning (ML) to maximize agent engagement, productivity, and return on investment (ROI).
Then, on January 10, in the third straight CX M&A in just as many days, California-based Global Technology Solutions (GTS), the provider of interaction management technologies, announced it was acquiring Florida-headquartered AdaptCX, a contact center technology advisory firm specializing in aligning the business requirements of government agencies with cloud contact center platforms. The Futurum Group covered this story in a roundup article that also featured two other acquisitions.
In the first, San Francisco-based healthcare technology company Innovaccer announced on January 16 the acquisition of Cured, the provider of healthcare customer relationship management (CRM) software in Indianapolis, Indiana. In the second M&A, Seattle-based marketing technology firm Banzai International confirmed in a January 22 announcement that it had signed a letter of intent to acquire Okemos, Michigan-headquartered Boast, the makers of a video-based platform for customer testimonials and surveys.
Four More Acquisitions After January 15
During the final two weeks of January, at least four more CX acquisitions were conducted, along with one occasion of new funding activity.
On January 17, CloudTalk, the provider of call-center software based in Slovakia in Eastern Europe, announced it had successfully raised $28 million in a Series B funding round co-led by KPN Ventures of the Netherlands and Florida-based Lead Ventures, with support from existing investors. The new investment will fund growth and product innovation, mainly in enhancing the company’s AI-powered cloud phone system and contact center solutions, which offer innovative features such as AI-powered dialers, conversational intelligence, and speech recognition.
Two acquisitions were announced on the following day, January 18. In the first, Arizona-based CX solutions provider Nextiva acquired Thrio, the contact center software company headquartered in California known for its AI-driven CX expertise. The acquisition represents the next step for Nextiva in its stated mission to democratize CX technology for businesses of all sizes. It is the second acquisition for Nextiva in less than two years, following the company’s purchase in May 2023 of Simplify360, a CX platform provider from India.
In the second M&A, Minnesota-based human capital management (HCM) firm Ceridian announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire eloomi, the learning experience software maker from Copenhagen, Denmark. The acquisition will expand the people-development capabilities of Dayforce, Ceridian’s cloud HCM platform, providing customers with AI-driven content creation, extended enterprise learning capabilities, and more engaging learning and development experiences. On February 1, Ceridian rebranded as Dayforce.
Related Article: Employee Experience: A Look Back and A Look Ahead
As January drew to a close, the month’s final two acquisitions went underway. On January 22, California-based CX and call center solutions provider Genesys said it was acquiring Radarr Technologies, the social and digital data analytics company headquartered in Singapore. The acquisition will enable Genesys to combine its voice and digital offerings with the public social media capabilities of Radarr, helping organizations unify their CX and connect with customers. Genesys will also use the social media insights of Radarr as a critical source to drive the 360-degree customer view provided by the Genesys Cloud platform.
A day later, on January 23, e-commerce personalization platform provider Bloomreach announced the acquisition of conversational commerce firm Radiance Commerce. Financial details of the transaction are not available, but Radiance is expected to spur the advancement of Clarity, Bloomreach’s conversational shopping product powered by generative AI. Using large language models (LLMs), Radiance can guide customers on their shopping journeys, providing expertise-based selling, product search information, recommendations, and exploration. Both Bloomreach and Radiance Commerce are headquartered in California.
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Alex is responsible for writing about trends and changes that are impacting the customer experience market. He had served as Principal Editor at Village Intelligence, a Los Angeles-based consultancy on technology impacting healthcare and healthcare-related industries. Alex was also Associate Director for Content Management at Omdia and Informa Tech, where he produced white papers, executive summaries, market insights, blogs, and other key content assets. His areas of coverage spanned the sectors grouped under the technology vertical, including semiconductors, smart technologies, enterprise & IT, media, displays, mobile, power, healthcare, China research, industrial and IoT, automotive, and transformative technologies.
At IHS Markit, he was Managing Editor of the company’s flagship IHS Quarterly, covering aerospace & defense, economics & country risk, chemicals, oil & gas, and other IHS verticals. He was Principal Editor of analyst output at iSuppli Corp. and Managing Editor of Market Watch, a fortnightly newsletter highlighting significant analyst report findings for pitching to the media. He started his career in writing as an Editor-Reporter for The Associated Press.
