Aspect Software, a technology company that sold solutions for call centers, including those in the banking and financial services industry, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week.
While the company did not sell directly into the collections industry, it did operate under a joint venture with LiveVox and both companies shared the same owner, Golden Gate Capital. Golden Gate Capital is a private equity firm that manages more than $15 billion of assets and has investments in Eddie Bauer, Payless Shoes, and Red Lobster. Golden Gate Capital is listed as Aspect’s second-largest creditor on the company’s bankruptcy filing.
LiveVox announced a partnership with Aspect the same day the acquisition of LiveVox by Golden Gate was announced. In a quarterly filing Aspect made with the Securities and Exchange Commission last September, the company said: “Aspect and LiveVox will cross-license and cross-sell each other’s products to better serve current and new customers.”
From a release announcing the joint venture, a few more details were provided:
Aspect and LiveVox will implement a joint go-to-market arrangement that will leverage Aspect’s global reach and resources while identifying immediate cross selling opportunities. Under the terms of the partnership, Aspect will integrate its existing cloud-based solutions with the LiveVox platform in the Aspect global data center and telco infrastructure to ensure economies of scale are maximized. The combined offering will be marketed as “Aspect BPO Cloud, powered by LiveVox”.
In the release announcing the investment by Golden Gate Capital, LiveVox specifically mentioned that it would remain an independent company following the acquisition.
According to a published report announcing the filing, “Aspect’s creditors agreed to eliminate $320 million of second-lien debt and convert $60 million of first-lien debt into 100 percent of the reorganized company’s equity, according to documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
