The announcement last August that Thoma Bravo would acquire Verint and merge it with Calabrio marks a pivotal point in the contact center customer experience and workforce engagement management (WEM) market. For the CX market, this moment represents either the end of the traditional WEM market, closing out a nearly 25-year run for a highly valuable suite of contact center optimization and analytics solutions, or the beginning of a new generation of artificial intelligence-enabled (or native, for more recent entrants) solutions built to enhance both the customer and employee experience and the bottom line. For companies using solutions from either of these companies it raises the common concerns of any software vendor merger where there is product overlap, specifically questions about whether the newly created entity will continue to support and innovate existing solutions.
Thoma Bravo has not shared much about plans for the combined companies, and few changes were made or expected until after Verint's end-of-year close on Jan. 31, but there has been significant speculation, most of which has not been positive. While understandable given the extent of product overlap across the two portfolios, if done right, this consolidation could drive positive outcomes by re-energizing a mature sector.>
We know that new CX solutions need to be AI-native to be competitive. We don't know if and how the merged entity will achieve this objective quickly enough to keep the dozens of recent entrants into the WEM market from capturing its market share and overtaking its leadership position.
Expectations for Year One
As Thoma Bravo is a highly successful software-focused private equity firm with a well-defined acquisition playbook, the opening chapter is expected to include cost-cutting and efficiency gains. For Thoma Bravo, this acquisition isn't about rescuing underperforming assets; it's about creating a more profitable and focused company through scale efficiencies. Both Calabrio and Verint have historically operated lean, but their portfolios have heavy product overlap across quality assurance (QA), automated quality management (AQM), recording, analytics, surveying, workforce management (WFM), and more. Thoma Bravo’s early moves will almost certainly center on eliminating duplication and consolidating overhead, administrative, and marketing activities while tightening R&D and go-to-market budgets.
The strategic challenge is to define a unified platform strategy and decide which solutions to keep and which to retire. Verint's initial narrative at the time of the acquisition, positioning Verint solutions for enterprises and Calabrio's for mid- and small-market customers, does not hold, as many of the existing solutions are direct competitors regardless of prospect size. Both companies serve global customer bases with cloud deployments and parallel WEM suites. Reconciling duplicate WFM solutions, overlapping QA/AQM and analytics offerings, and competing automation roadmaps will require careful deliberation, thoughtful rollout, and clear communication. The technology can be aligned; the risk is customer migration anxiety if the path forward isn't communicated early, clearly, and frequently, and if execution is not clean or aligned with the current client base's expectations.
The Competitive Environment
This market consolidation is unfolding at a moment when competitive pressure is intensifying on two fronts. Contact center-as-a-service vendors are increasingly bundling WEM natively, positioning themselves as end-to-end CX platforms. At the same time, a fast-moving group of AI-native WEM-lite entrants is aggressively redefining expectations around AQM, real-time guidance (RTG), agent assist, automated post-interaction summarization, automation, conversational AI (CAI), WFM, and more. The combined Calabrio/Verint entity will need to move decisively to articulate its AI strategy and product roadmap while accelerating innovation to remain competitive and sustain its leadership in this rapidly shifting landscape.
Despite the risk and complexity, the merger has the potential to be very good for both companies, their customers, and the market. Together, they form a best-of-breed WEM competitor with deep domain expertise, a broad and mature product portfolio, advanced AI capabilities, a large domestic and international installed base, and meaningful global scale. In a market increasingly shaped by AI-driven disruption, the industry could benefit from a strong, independent WEM player with the resources to invest in the R&D required to remain a formidable competitor.
For buyers, the next 12 to 18 months will be about clarity regarding product roadmaps, AI investments, product integration plans, migration paths, product support, and how pricing and packaging will evolve under private equity ownership. The opportunity is real, but so are the risks. Execution will determine whether the Calabrio/Verint consolidation becomes a market-shaping success or a gateway for new AI-native WEM entrants.
Donna Fluss, founder and president of DMG Consulting, provides a unique and unparalleled understanding of the people, processes, and technology that drive the strategic direction of the dynamic and rapidly transforming contact center and back-office markets. As the foremost analyst and visionary dedicated to the contact center and back-office markets, she has provided expert guidance for more than 30 years to technology leaders as well as disruptive newcomers, investors, and enterprises that want to build next-generation AI-enabled contact centers. She can be reached at Donna.Fluss@dmgconsult.com.