Thoma Bravo in talks to buy Verint as CRM market faces AI upheaval

The investment fund Thoma Bravo is in talks to acquire the Israeli company Verint, according to Bloomberg. Verint’s shares jumped 15% in after-hours trading on Wall Street following the report, although the potential deal value remains unknown and neither party has commented publicly. Since the beginning of the year, Verint’s shares have significantly underperformed, dropping 32% and bringing its market capitalization down to just $1.1 billion.

Verint operates in the customer relationship management (CRM) systems market and competes directly with fellow Israeli company NICE. The CRM market is currently facing major disruption from artificial intelligence, which can easily replicate the functions of traditional software at lower costs. NICE’s share price has also been under pressure, especially since Microsoft launched its own AI-driven product for this sector.

Thoma Bravo specializes in acquiring and restructuring cybersecurity and enterprise software companies, often by taking public firms private. In the past, it acquired Shlomo Kramer’s Israeli company Imperva for $2 billion and sold it for $3.6 billion five years later.

Today, Verint’s management is predominantly non-Israeli, and the company is officially registered in the United States. However, it is still led by veteran CEO and chairman Dan Bodner, who originally established the business within the old Comverse, from which Verint was spun out in the early 2000s. Four years ago, Verint split its operations, floating its cyber and video surveillance business as a separate company called Cognyte, which is now trading at a market value of only $700 million.