Verint® announced that it has acquired all of the outstanding equity interests in Next IT Corporation and its affiliate Next IT Innovation Labs, LLC (collectively, “Next IT”), a developer of conversational artificial intelligence-powered intelligent virtual assistants. The purchase price consisted of close to $30 million of cash paid at closing, plus potential additional future cash payments.
“We continue to execute our innovation strategy, including making acquisitions that expand our self-service portfolio, accelerate Verint’s cloud and automation capabilities, and are accretive to earnings. We believe that Verint’s ongoing innovation in artificial intelligence technologies—such as machine learning, robotics and natural language processing—positions us for accelerated growth by helping organizations modernize their customer engagement operations with greater automation,” says Dan Bodner, CEO, Verint.
Updated Outlook for the Year Ending January 31, 2019
Although this is a small acquisition for Verint, because we just recently provided preliminary guidance for the year ending January 31, 2019, we are updating our outlook. For the year ending January 31, 2019, we are adding $10 million of revenue and 3 cents of diluted earnings per share to our non-GAAP outlook as follows:
- We are increasing our outlook for revenue growth in our Customer Engagement™ segment from around 5% to around 6%.
- We are maintaining our outlook for revenue growth in our Cyber Intelligence™ segment of around 10%.
- We are increasing our outlook for total revenue from $1.215 billion to $1.225 billion with a range of +/- 2%.
- We are increasing our outlook for diluted earnings per share at the midpoint of our revenue guidance from $3.00 to $3.03, reflecting approximately 10% year-over-year growth.
- Our growth rate outlook is expressed relative to our existing outlook for the year ending January 31, 2018.
Our preliminary non-GAAP outlook for the year ending January 31, 2019 excludes the following GAAP measure, which we are able to quantify with reasonable certainty:
- Amortization of discount on convertible notes of approximately $12 million.
Our preliminary non-GAAP outlook for the year ending January 31, 2019 excludes the following GAAP measures for which we are able to provide a range of probable significance:
- Amortization of intangible assets is expected to be between approximately $49 million and $53 million for the year ending January 31, 2019.
Revenue adjustments related to completed acquisitions are expected to be between approximately $5 million and $9 million for the year ending January 31, 2019.
Stock-based compensation is expected to be between approximately $60 million and $70 million for the year ending January 31, 2019, assuming market prices for our common stock approximately consistent with current levels.
Our preliminary non-GAAP outlook does not include the potential impact of any in-process business acquisitions that may close after the date hereof, and, unless otherwise specified, reflects foreign currency exchange rates approximately consistent with current rates.
We are unable, without unreasonable efforts, to provide a reconciliation for other GAAP measures which are excluded from our preliminary non-GAAP outlook, including the impact of future business acquisitions or acquisition expenses, future restructuring expenses, and non-GAAP income tax adjustments due to the level of unpredictability and uncertainty associated with these items. For these same reasons, we are unable to assess the probable significance of these excluded items.