Strategic acquisition comes as Five9 continues to accelerate enterprise cloud contact center adoption

SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 19, 2020-- Five9, Inc. (NASDAQ: FIVN), the leading provider of the intelligent cloud contact center, today announced the execution of a definitive agreement to acquire Virtual Observer, formerly known as CSI, an innovative provider of cloud-based Workforce Optimization (WFO), also known as Workforce Engagement Management (WEM), solutions. Virtual Observer has been a Five9 partner for over three years with more than 150 joint customers.

As customers move to the cloud, many seek benefits of simpler administration and streamlined data, which come from tighter integration between WFO and contact center infrastructure. With this acquisition, Five9 expands its portfolio to include a cloud-based and integrated WFO offering as a complement to the company’s ongoing strategic partnerships with leading WFO providers focused on delivering best-of-breed experiences for large enterprises.

“Technology is at its best when it empowers human connection,” said Rowan Trollope, Five9 CEO. “To create these memorable moments, contact centers need to empower agents and supervisors to better focus on the customer. The addition of Virtual Observer to the Five9 portfolio strengthens our ability to inspire agents and maximize the quality of customer interactions while reducing costs and maintaining regulatory compliance.”

Virtual Observer provides a comprehensive solution for workforce optimization specifically designed for the cloud-enabled, modern contact center. Capabilities include:

• Integrated omnichannel recording and screen recording
• Advanced security for PCI/HIPAA
• Quality management
• Speech analytics
• Surveys
• Workforce management
• Pre-built connectors with leading CRM applications

In addition to its comprehensive solution and strong track record as a Five9 partner, the acquisition of Virtual Observer will bring decades worth of WFO experience to Five9 as Virtual Observer’s current workforce will transition to the Five9 team, including existing Virtual Observer CTO, Dan McGrail.

“Key to the power of the contact center is people working with people,” said Dan McGrail, current Virtual Observer CTO. “We pride ourselves on our ability to empower agents to deliver a high quality of service and an improved customer experience. We are excited to join the Five9 team as we continue to drive innovative WFO solutions in the contact center.”

Post-acquisition, Five9 will continue to partner with best of breed WFO partners, such as Five9 WFO powered by Verint, to provide customer choice and to address the needs of large enterprise deployments. Five9 prides itself on its vibrant and expanding partner ecosystem, where organizations have access to a broad selection of solutions that meet their businesses’ evolving needs.

“With the Virtual Observer acquisition, Five9 has all the pieces in place to provide the WFO customers prefer – tightly integrated with Five9 contact center software or best of breed through partners,” said Sheila McGee-Smith, Founder and Principal Analyst, McGee-Smith Analytics.

The transaction is expected to close prior to the end of Q2 CY2020.

To learn more about the Virtual Observer, click here.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including the statements in the quotes from our CEO and Virtual Observer’s CTO, including statements regarding the expected synergies and benefits from the acquisition, the benefits to Five9’s customers and potential customers, and the expected closing date of the transaction, that are based on our current expectations and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate. Risks that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include that we may not achieve the intended benefits of the acquisition or may not deliver our expected return on investment, we may incur unexpected costs or liabilities related to the transaction, the Virtual Observer platform may not achieve market acceptance by our customers and potential customers, and that the transaction may not close when expected or at all. Additional risks that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include, among others: (i) our quarterly and annual results may fluctuate significantly, including as a result of the timing and success of new product and feature introductions by us, may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business and may result in decreases in the price of our common stock; (ii) if we are unable to attract new clients or sell additional services and functionality to our existing clients, our revenue and revenue growth will be harmed; (iii) our recent rapid growth may not be indicative of our future growth, and even if we continue to grow rapidly, we may fail to manage our growth effectively; (iv) failure to adequately expand our sales force could impede our growth; (v) if we fail to manage our technical operations infrastructure, our existing clients may experience service outages, our new clients may experience delays in the deployment of our solution and we could be subject to, among other things, claims for credits or damages; (vi) security breaches and improper access to or disclosure of our data, our clients’ data, their customers’ data, or other cyber-attacks on our systems, could result in litigation and regulatory risk, harm our reputation and adversely affect our business; (vii) the markets in which we participate involve numerous competitors and are highly competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our operating results could be harmed; (viii) if our existing clients terminate their subscriptions or reduce their subscriptions and related usage, our revenues and gross margins will be harmed and we will be required to spend more money to grow our client base; (ix) our growth depends in part on the success of our strategic relationships with third parties and our failure to successfully grow and manage these relationships could harm our business; (x) we have established, and are continuing to increase, our network of master agents and resellers to sell our solution; our failure to effectively develop, manage, and maintain this network could materially harm our revenues; (xi) we sell our solution to larger organizations that require longer sales and implementation cycles and often demand more configuration and integration services or customized features and functions that we may not offer, any of which could delay or prevent these sales and harm our growth rates, business and operating results; (xii) because a significant percentage of our revenue is derived from existing clients, downturns or upturns in new sales will not be immediately reflected in our operating results and may be difficult to discern; (xiii) we rely on third-party telecommunications and internet service providers to provide our clients and their customers with telecommunication services and connectivity to our cloud contact center software and any failure by these service providers to provide reliable services could cause us to lose clients and subject us to claims for credits or damages, among other things; (xiv) we have a history of losses and we may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability; (xv) the contact center software solutions market is subject to rapid technological change, and we must develop and sell incremental and new products in order to maintain and grow our business; (xvi) we may not be able to secure additional financing on favorable terms, or at all, to meet our future capital needs; (xvii) failure to comply with laws and regulations could harm our business and our reputation; (xviii) we may not have sufficient cash to service our convertible senior notes and repay such notes, if required; and (xix) the other risks detailed from time-to-time under the caption “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q. Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and readers should not unduly rely on such statements. We undertake no obligation to update the information contained in this press release, including in any forward-looking statements.

About Five9

Five9 is a leading provider of cloud contact center software for the intelligent contact center space, bringing the power of cloud innovation to customers and facilitating more than six billion call minutes annually. Five9 provides end-to-end solutions with omnichannel routing, analytics, WFO and AI to increase agent productivity and deliver tangible business results. The Five9 Genius^TM platform is reliable, secure, compliant and scalable; designed to create exceptional personalized customer experiences.

For more information, visit www.five9.com.

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Source: Five9, Inc.

Five9
Kendall Taylor
925-231-2196
kendall.taylor@five9.com