MicroStrategy sells off contact center software division

IDG News Service - Business Intelligence tool maker MicroStrategy is getting out of the contact center software business, having sold off its Angel subsidiary to Genesys for roughly $110 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in March.

Angel offers an array of cloud-based, self-service contact center products, with interactive voice response, chat and other capabilities. Angel has developed a series of customer service applications specialized for various industries, such as banking and health care, according to a statement released Tuesday.

For Genesys, the acquisition "will transform cloud-based self-service contact center solutions for businesses of all sizes around the globe," Genesys CEO Paul Segre said in a statement. Genesys already has a wide array of contact center and customer service software, but the addition of Angel will bring its annual recurring cloud revenue to more than $85 million, according to the company.

MicroStrategy's brief announcement didn't provide a rationale for the pending deal. A spokesman for the company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

One possibility is that MicroStrategy's leadership simply decided Angel wasn't crucial to its future direction.

MicroStrategy remains one of the industry's largest independent players in BI. But it has made a series of steps outside that category in recent times, adding areas such as mobile application development and e-commerce to its plate, Ovum analyst Fredrik Tunvall said in a recent blog post.

However, "MicroStrategy needs to tread carefully so it doesn't become a jack of all trades and master of none," Tunvall added. "Specifically, Ovum believes the company needs to show a common thread (for example, unified platform, metadata exchange, data synchronization) for its offerings in BI, mobile application development, and e-commerce."

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com