NICE in talks to buy Verint at $1.5b value

Since the companies dominate the market for data collation and analysis, US regulators will likely have to approve the merger.

14 January 13 09:04, Hillel Koren and Globes' correspondent

NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE) is in talks to acquire its main rival, Israel's Verint Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: VRNT), according to market sources.

NICE will reportedly acquire Verint at a company value of $1.5 billion, a 19% premium on its market cap of $1.26 billion. NICE has a market cap of $2.1 billion. If a deal is closed, it will reportedly be for cash and shares, mostly the latter.

Since the two companies together dominate the US market for intelligence collation and analysis systems, including voice, video and text surveillance, the US antitrust regulators will likely have to approve the merger.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 14, 2013

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