Wednesday February 17, 8:09 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Convergys Corporation to Acquire Controlling
Interest in Wiztec Solutions, Ltd.
CINCINNATI, Ohio and HERZLIA, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Feb. 17,
1999--Convergys(SM) Corporation, the global leader in providing outsourced, integrated, customer care and billing, announced today it has entered into an agreement to increase to approximately 70 percent its ownership of Wiztec Solutions, Ltd., a leading provider of subscriber management systems for multi-channel subscription television. Convergys purchased nearly 20 percent of Wiztec (Nasdaq:WIZTF - news) in October, 1997, at which time the companies also entered into an alliance for the joint development and marketing of software and services.
Convergys agreed to purchase additional shares from Formula Systems, Ltd. (Nasdaq:FORTY - news), a leading software and information technology services company and parent company of Wiztec, and certain other shareholders, at a price of $15.25 per share. The approximate value of the purchase is $55 million. Convergys expects the transaction to be two to three cents dilutive for one to two years. The transaction is expected to close early in March.
''Convergys is fully committed to making state-of-the-art information and customer management solutions available to leading communications companies in the United States and international markets,'' said Jim Orr, president and chief executive officer of Convergys. ''Increasing our ownership of Wiztec to 70 percent demonstrates our confidence in the outstanding people and solutions Wiztec is able to provide for the growing multi-channel subscription television market. This significant investment also aligns with our strategy to grow our business on a global basis.''
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