Redwood City, CA and Menlo Park, CA April 12, 2001 Gartner estimates that global CRM spending will increase from $23 billion in 2000 to $76.3 billion in 2005, and Kana Communications wants a piece of the action.
Kana Communications, an enterprise relationship management (eRM) provider, recently signed a definitive merger agreement with Broadbase Software, a provider of applications that help Web sites track customer information. The combined company, which will concentrate on relationship management software, will be called Kana Software. Chuck Bay, CEO of Broadbase, will serve as President and CEO of the new company while Jay Wood, chairman and CEO of Kana, will serve as chairman of the Board of Directors.
At launch, Kana Software will already have the marked advantage of its combined base of 1,300 customers, which includes American Express, Bank of America, Boeing, Cisco, Ford, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, MCI, Microsoft, Sprint and United Airlines.
Customers are demanding a relationship management solution that creates extraordinary relationships, says Jay Wood. This requires the combination of analytics, knowledge, marketing and service with a scalable e-business platform. When we look at the combined strengths of the Kana and Broadbase product offerings, we have a unique and unbeatable eRM solution.
The new Kana eRM solution enables companies to acquire, retain and grow profitable and loyal relationships, said Chuck Bay. Kana advances the ability of Global 2000 organizations to provide intelligent, profitable interactions that deliver rapid return on investment.
The merger agreement is subject to shareholder approval and is expected to close in the third quarter. Shareholders of Broadbase will receive 1.05 shares of Kana for each share of Broadbase exchanged.
