Chordiant Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHRD) and KiQ Limited, a privately held United Kingdom company, today announced that the parties have signed a definitive agreement for Chordiant to acquire KiQ in a transaction with an aggregate purchase price of approximately $19 million of which $9.5 million is in cash and $9.5 million in Chordiant common stock.
Chordiant expects to close the transaction in December, 2004, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. It is expected that the transaction will be neutral with respect to Chordiant's previously announced earnings and revenue guidance for the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2004.
The company stated it would provide financial guidance, including the acquisition of KiQ, for 2005 when it announces its fourth quarter 2004 financial results.
KiQ provides a decision management system that advances the state of analytics by exploiting the power of predictive data mining, analytical modeling, strategy formulation into real-time decision management and execution. Today, KiQ enables organizations to significantly increase the accuracy of marketing offers for retention, up-selling, crossing selling, and to model risk scenarios such as customer churn and likelihood to default on payments. With the addition of KiQ's products and patent-pending technology, Chordiant delivers a range of applications for real-time recommendation, retention, risk management and recruitment. Additionally, the combination of technologies will allow Chordiant to optimize business processes and more effectively predict and manage servicing operations in real-time.
"The combination of Chordiant and KiQ is consistent with our stated strategy to grow the company both organically and through acquisitions. It is a winning combination and offers immediate value to our existing customers who use Chordiant's Marketing Director, Chordiant's Enterprise solutions, and positions us well for new customer growth," said Stephen Kelly, CEO, Chordiant Software. "Our customers in retail financial services, communications and consumer driven industries require deeper understanding of individual customers and must execute complex decisions in real-time to market and serve more effectively."
As a result of the transaction, Chordiant will add 14 new customers primarily in financial services and telecommunications. Customers include; O2, Orange and T-Mobile in the telecommunications sector and Fortis Banking and Insurance Group, DSB Bank, and SNS Bank, in the European financial services sector. A total of 20 KiQ employees, including two founders and 15 engineering and technical staff, will join Chordiant.