E-commerce software firm E.piphany Inc. Wednesday bought privately-held customer service software provider Octane Software Inc. for $3.2 billion in stock.
E.piphany will issue approximately 12.8 million shares of its common stock to the shareholders of Octane, or approximately 26.5 percent of the combined company.
E.piphany’s (EPNY) will use Octane’s technology to create the only Web-based solution that coordinates inbound and outbound interactions with customers in real-time.
E.piphany and Octane serve more than 125 enterprises in e-commerce, financial services, communications, consumer-packaged goods and technology, including Autoweb.com (AWEB), Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) and Internet Capital Group Inc. (ICGE)
When the deal closes, E.piphany said it expects to have more than 500 employees, including more than 60 ‘enterprise-class’ quota carrying sales representatives to build relationships with business-to-business firms.
“To create a successful customer lifecycle management system, large enterprises must intelligently connect outbound sales and marketing with inbound service and support,” said Barry Wilderman, vice president of META Group’s Application Delivery Strategic service.
“We believe that vendors like E.piphany, will deliver integrated suites of applications that span key components of both operational and analytical CRM.”