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Melville-based CosmoCom sold in $20M deal [Long Island Business News (NY)](Long Island Business News (NY) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Melville-based CosmoCom, one of Long Island's leading developers of call center management software, has been acquired by Canada's Enghouse Systems in a $20 million cash deal, or about 1.15 times 2010 revenue. CosmoCom CEO Ari Sonesh plans to leave the company to pursue new ventures. Benjamin Eisner, CosmoCom's president and COO, will remain and head the firm. "I'm now available for my next big thing," Sonesh told LIBN. Enghouse provides software and services for the global telecommunications, oil, gas and utility industries and has been a frequent acquirer. It made the CosmoCom deal in partnership with its wholly owned Syntellect subsidiary, which provides contact center technology and service from its headquarters in Phoenix. "This acquisition provides us an excellent opportunity to grow our business into new market segments and geographies, with a combined portfolio that serves both the established premise-based and the growing cloud-based markets," Enghouse CEO Stephen Sadler said in a statement. Sonesh founded CosmoCom in 1996 following stints in top management at Comverse Technology and General Telecomputer, and grew the company into a global player with investments from top venture firms, including Long Island's Topspin Partners and Wheatley Partners. Eisner came to the firm from Telephony at Work and Verint and also ran Telrad Telecommunications, the U.S. subsidiary of Israeli telecom giant Tadiran Telecommunications. CosmoCom has moved rapidly into the health care space in the past months, adding dozens of customers, including ColibriumDirect, an Atlanta firm that specializes in private health care insurance. Look for the spot at which health care, mobility and communications interconnect, and you may one day soon find Sonesh. "I'm excited about the opportunity to do something new," he said. "I'm not sure yet what that is, but it will definitely involve the cloud. At CosmoCom, our solutions were always in the cloud, long before it became a buzz word. We understood that the future was in delivering over the network." (c) 2011 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |