Dublin: UCD spin-out acquired by Amdocs for $60 million

Acquisition

Amdocs, the US provider of customer experience systems, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ChangingWorlds Ltd, a spin-out company from University College Dublin’s School of Computer Science and Informatics, in a $60 million  deal that is UCD’s largest exit to date – more than doubling the $26 million that US chipmaker Agere Systems paid for semiconductor spin-out Massana in 2003.

ChangingWorlds was founded in 1999 by UCD academics Professor Barry Smyth and Paul Cotter to commercialise their research into personalisation and artificial intelligence technologies. The company maintains a strong strategic link with the university, as its ongoing R&D activities are taking place in NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at UCD.

Welcoming the acquisition, Professor Mark Keane, UCD’s Vice-President for Innovation, said, “That the return to UCD from this acquisition will be re-invested in future UCD spin-out companies for the general good of the Irish economy.” UCD’s  precise stake in the deal was not disclosed.

Under the terms of the agreement, Amdocs has agreed to acquire all of ChangingWorlds’ shares for $60 million in cash, net of cash on hand, subject to post-closing adjustments. Additional consideration may be paid later based on the achievement of certain performance metrics. The acquisition is subject to conditions customary to such transactions, and is expected to close during Amdocs’ fiscal quarter ending 31 December 2008.

UCD says that ChangingWorlds’ technology combined with the Amdocs CES portfolio will enable better customer experiences by allowing end-users to get relevant information quickly, based on what they use most. This should make it easier for users to navigate the Internet on their phones and reduce the time spent looking for content.

ChangingWorlds’ technology currently addresses mobile devices, and Amdocs intends to expand the technology to three screens (mobile, PC and television) to personalise the customer experience across all touch points. ChangingWorlds and Amdocs share several customers, including Sprint, the Vodafone Group and Telefonica O2.

Its patented technology automatically builds subscriber profiles based on user behaviour and usage patterns that require no user input or action to make finding relevant content faster and with fewer clicks. For example, a sports enthusiast will see the link to latest information about his favourite football team on his home page, while a classical music fan will see the link to the upcoming concerts in his area.

“Amdocs and ChangingWorlds recognise the power of the customer experience and the potential for service providers to further exploit their place in the digital value chain,” said David Moran, Chief Executive Officer of ChangingWorlds. “Both Amdocs and ChangingWorlds will continue to aggressively execute on the shared vision of enabling service providers to offer the most compelling customer experience, to grow revenue from data services and retain customers.”