Highly successful University College Dublin (UCD) spin-out firm ChangingWorlds has just been acquired for US$60m by US-based CRM software service company Amdocs.
Amdocs plans to use ChangingWorlds’ personalised portal technology, presumably ClixSmart, beyond the mobile platform.
ChangingWorlds has in the past year made deals with US telecoms firm Sprint, as well as O2 UK, to provide both content search and portal personalisation across their mobile services.
The company also has an extensive customer base including O2 Ireland and Germany, Vodacom in South Africa and T-Mobile in Austria.
Amdocs’ plans for the mobile technology developed by ChangingWorlds include bringing it to the ‘three screens’, ie to the computer and television screen as well as the mobile handset.
While the deal was made for US$60m in cash, Amdocs has said that “additional consideration may be paid later based on the achievement of certain performance metrics.”
“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 (pictured), CEO 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.”
Amdocs CEO Dov Baharav said that “no single vendor” could compete with the “range and sophistication of personalisation services” offered by ChangingWorlds, which has been in operation since 1999 after a decision was made to commercialise the ClixSmart technology developed as part of research programme in UCD.
ChangingWorlds was founded by UCD lecturers Barry Smyth and Paul Cotter.
By Marie Boran
Pictured: David Moran, CEO of ChangingWorlds
