Nuance to Acquire Varolii

Nuance Communications has signed an agreement to acquire Varolii, a provider of cloud-based outbound customer engagement solutions via automated phone, email, and text messages, reaching an estimated one out of every five American adults each year.

With the acquisition, Varolii brings a full outbound communication portfolio to the Nuance OnDemand Customer Service Cloud, which provides inbound hosted interactive voice response and Nina virtual assistant solutions for mobile and Web applications. Varolii also will extend Nuance’s market position in cloud-based customer service through the addition of more 400 deployments, including Alaska Airlines, Southern California Edison, SunTrust, and Time Warner Cable.

This acquisition also strengthens and broadens Nuance’s participation in the growing customer service solutions market. 

"The greatest opportunity to deliver superior service is when you can anticipate a need and proactively contact the customer in a personalized and intelligent way," said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager of Nuance's Enterprise Division, in a statement. "The combination of Nuance and Varolii not only represents the best of inbound customer service with the best in outbound customer communications, but the opportunity to deliver automated yet natural conversations with customers that are more compelling and effective." 

"Varolii has been trusted as a leading provider of repeatable customer engagement applications across six B2C-intensive markets, enabling leading companies to reduce costs, increase customer reach, and improve customer outcomes," said David McCann, president and CEO of Varolii, in a statement. "We're excited to become a part of Nuance's comprehensive multichannel vision."