European Private Equity IBI and Global Financial Group BBVA Invest in Contact Center Solutions Vendor Aiming for Growth in the Global Market

Altitude Software, a leading independent contact center solutions vendor, announced that European private equity fund IBI and global financial services group BBVA acquired a majority of Altitude Software’s capital from Portuguese venture capital funds and private investors.

Since its acquisition in 2003 by an investment consortium lead by its CEO Gastão Taveira, Altitude has consistently delivered a solid financial and business performance, with good revenue growth rates and steady profits. The new shareholder structure now comprises of IBI (45%), BBVA (31%) and Tafin (24%). Tafin is an investment vehicle for Altitude’s CEO Gastão Taveira, which will continue to lead the company. The transaction financial details were not disclosed.

Altitude Software provides unified customer interaction solutions to manage dynamic contact centers. It has 15 offices worldwide and 300 employees supporting more than 900 customers in 60 countries. It’s main product, the Altitude uCI (unified communications interaction), is a software suite that manages in real time enterprise functions like customer service, help desk, collections, telesales, surveys, etc. It is unique in accelerating the creation of services and campaigns, thanks to the unified design studio, routing, dialer, voice portal, desktop front-end, monitoring and analytics.

“Altitude Software is ready to enter a new phase of increased business growth, aiming at a leadership position in the global market. It has the solutions, management and reach to provide effective, innovative customer interaction solutions to emerging business needs, with a track record of product and service innovation that makes a difference and contributes to place its customers a step ahead of the competition” said the new shareholders, in a prepared statement.

IBI is a European private equity fund focused on the software industry. BBVA is a multinational financial services group with more than €557 billion in total assets, more than 47 million clients in more than 30 countries, a leadership position in Spain and Latin America and presence in Europe, the United States (where it is the largest regional bank in the sunbelt and one of the top banks by assets) and Asia-Pacific (with presence in the main financial centres: Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Mumbai and Shanghai).

“The new shareholders are committed to help further develop Altitude’s solutions portfolio and to accelerate sales and marketing activities worldwide in order to fuel the continued market growth of our solutions” said Gastão Taveira, Altitude Software CEO. “In 2011 we will be launching a major release of our solution suite, addressing key business needs in a very dynamic industry being impacted by radical technological changes. We will be extending our services and offerings and addressing key markets, aiming at a leadership position in the global market”.

The Altitude uCI (Unified Customer Interaction) suite has a ten year plus track record of outstanding results in contact centers worldwide, having won 40+ Industry Awards for Innovation and Performance in more recent years and it has been included by Gartner in the industry Magic Quadrants since 2000. Altitude Software has customers on all industries with a special strength in the CRM Service Provider industry and on Financial Services, Telecommunications, and Services. It has a strong customer base in EMEA and Latin America, with an emerging presence in North America and Asia Pacific. The Altitude Software Partner Network has more than 100 members providing Contact Center solutions using Altitude’s products and services.