Verint Systems Inc. is a Melville, New York–based technology company that sells products and services for customer experience (CX) automation. The company offers an open platform, applications, and bots that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics, large language models, and automated workflows to analyze business intelligence from customer interactions in the contact center, back office, branch, web sites, and mobile apps. This information is used by organizations to achieve a variety of business outcomes, such as increasing productivity and service quality without hiring additional workers, lowering costs, improving the customer experience, and enhancing products, services, and competitive differentiation. In 2024, Verint has approximately 10,000 clients in more than 175 countries, and approximately 3,700 employees around the globe, plus a few hundred contractors in various locations internationally. The company was previously a majority-owned subsidiary of

Comverse Technology Comverse Technology, Inc. was a technology company located in Woodbury, New York in the United States, that developed and marketed telecommunications software. The company focused on providing value-added services to telecommunication service p ...

and it was formerly known as Comverse Infosys."Verint to raise $75m. in Nasdaq IPO"
, ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English language, English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''Th ...

'', 8 February 2002. In February 2013, Verint Systems became independent of Comverse, having bought out the latter's stake in it.

History

Founding, early years

Verint started as

's Comverse Infosys business unit, which was created in 1999 although it was also incorporated in Delaware in February 1994 as a wholly owned subsidiary of

. Verint's initial focus was on the commercial call recording market, which at the time was transitioning from analog tape to digital recorders. On June 7, 1999, the company released an Internet Call Waiting service.

Expansion and name change

In 1999, Comverse Infosys was combined with another division of Comverse focused on security and the communications interception market. In 2001, Verint expanded into video security by combining with Loronix Information Systems, Inc., which had been previously acquired by Comverse. In 2002, Comverse Infosys changed its name to Verint Systems Inc.

IPO, acquisitions

In May 2002, Verint completed an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

and became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

, although it was still majority owned by Comverse Technology. Since 2006 Verint has acquired several other companies such as MultiVision Intelligent Surveillance Limited, a networked video security business; CM Insight Limited, a UK-based, customer management company; Mercom Systems Inc., an interaction recording and performance evaluation company; ViewLinks Euclipse Ltd., a provider of data mining and link analysis software; and Witness Systems, Inc. a workforce optimization company. In July 2008 Amit Bohensky founded Focal-Info, a software company focused on web data extraction and analytics. The following month Focal-Info had been bought by Verint for an undisclosed amount, with Bohensky hired back on to lead Focal-Info's "extended activity" within Verint. A subsequent acquisition was of Iontas, in early 2010, a provider of desktop analytics solutions. Beginning with a stock

options backdating In finance, options backdating is the practice of altering the date a stock option was granted, to a usually earlier (but sometimes later) date at which the underlying stock price was lower. This is a way of repricing options to make them more v ...

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in 2006, parent company Comverse Technology suffered a series of financial reporting problems, losses and layoffs, with one consequence that both Comverse and Verint were delisted from the

NASDAQ stock market The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

in 2007 and ended up on the Pink Sheets. In July 2010, Verint was relisted on the NASDAQ stock market under the symbol VRNT. By that year, there was considerable talk that Comverse Technology would sell its remaining interest in Verint, with some private equity firms mentioned as possible buyers. In September 2011, Verint acquired Global Management Technologies Corporation, paying around $25 million for it.

Full independence

In August 2012, Verint announced that it would buy out Comverse Technology's stake in it, in a transaction valued at around $800 million. An FBR Capital Markets analyst said the move "finally eliminates a major overhang on the name by removing Comverse's majority ownership stake." The deal was finalized in February 2013. In January 2014, the Swiss

Federal Department of Justice and Police The Federal Department of Justice and Police (, , , ) is one of the seven Ministry (government department), departments of the Switzerland, Swiss federal government, and is equivalent to a ministry of justice in other countries. As of 2024, it ...

awarded Verint a contract worth $14.2 million to develop the new Interception System Switzerland ISS 2 wiretapping system. Over the next few years, Verint acquired several more companies - in February 2014, the CRM provider KANA Software Inc., acquired from Accel-KKR for $514.2 million; in November 2016, the customer experience software company OpinionLab for an undisclosed amount; in December 2017, the intelligent virtual assistant company Next IT for $30 million cash plus up to $21 million in future payments. On February 1, 2021, Verint spun off its cyber intelligence division as Cognyte, an independent company catering to governments, to become a pure-play customer engagement vendor. Having divested its cyber intelligence and defense offerings, Verint now focused on developing customer engagement and CX automation solutions for the civilian market, including banking, insurance, public safety/sector, retail, and telecommunications organizations.

Controversy

An article published in

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

alleges Verint had "faced backlash" for selling surveillance technology to "repressive regimes" for several years. On February 2, 2021,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

reported that an Israeli subsidiary of Verint had "provided the South Sudanese authorities, including the NSS ational Security Services with communications interception equipment and annual support services" between 2015 and 2017. The NSS has a record of "harassing, intimidating, threatening, arbitrarily detaining and, in some cases, forcibly disappearing and extra-judicially killing" critics of the government. In its report, Amnesty said it "believes that this

ale Ale is a style of beer, brewed using a warm fermentation method. In medieval England, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to balance the malt and act as a preservative. Ale ...

goes against Israel’s obligation to protect human rights."

Products

Verint's products include the Verint Open Platform, which incorporates AI and behavioral data from customer interactions, along with numerous AI-powered bots and applications for customer engagement. The platform is modular, allowing organizations to selectively implement bots to align with specific business priorities. The platform supports traditional contact centers as well as contact center as a service (CCaaS) models. Automated workflows support the sharing of customer interaction analysis among the contact center, back office, branch, web sites, and mobile apps. In June 2024, Verint was named “Best Virtual Agent Solution” in the AI Breakthrough Awards program. The company’s open platform was named a winner in the “Best Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” category at the 2024 CX Awards hosted by ''CX Today''.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies listed on the Nasdaq American companies established in 2002 Software companies established in 2002 Mass surveillance Surveillance Call-recording software Business intelligence companies Software companies based in New York (state) Companies based in Suffolk County, New York 2002 establishments in New York (state) 2002 initial public offerings Software companies of the United States