Khoros and Topbox FAQ   What is happening? Backed by a significant new growth equity investment from Vista, Khoros has acquired Topbox. The acquisition brings Topbox’s innovative omnichannel conversation analytics platform to Khoros’ award-winning digital customer engagement platform, creating a powerful new standard for AI-powered customer experience management (CXM). Khoros with Topbox will create a comprehensive solution for brands to understand and engage customers more effectively across the experience.     Who is Topbox? Topbox is an omnichannel conversation analytics platform that aggregates, normalizes, and classifies customer interactions across various communication channels (phone, email, chat, social media, surveys, messaging, and more). Resulting in actionable insights using proprietary NLP and AI technology, Topbox gives you a comprehensive CX analysis of your customers — all with one single pane of glass. This means you can now get more in-depth visibility into how your customers feel about your brand presence, products, business processes, and more, and then act on them instantly with Khoros’ digital engagement platform. Learn more a t www.topbox.io .    Who is Khoros? Khoros is a global leader in digital-first customer engagement software and services, building enterprise software and offering expert services for digital customer service, messaging, chat, online brand communities, and social media management — differentiated by award-winning services with 20+ years of experience.    Over 2,000 brands use Khoros to power approximately 500 million daily digital interactions, and create customers for life. Khoros has won over 10 recent industry awards from TrustRadius, Stevie Awards, G2, and more. Khoros, built from Spredfast and Lithium, has 9 offices globally and is part of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. For more information, visit khoros.com . Under what name will the combined company operate?  The combined company will continue as Khoros, to expand the platform of the Khoros brand, with more information about product branding becoming available in Q1.    Who is the executive team? Khoros is led by a diverse group of professionals with deep expertise in the enterprise software industry. Topbox CEO Chris Tranquill will join the Khoros executive team as General Manager of Topbox, at Khoros.    What does this mean for Topbox employees? Topbox officially became a part of Khoros on December 31, 2020. All employees will remain with Khoros going forward and will join Khoros’ global workforce of over 1,000 employees.   Will there be any changes to physical office locations?  Khoros will add Topbox’s Kansas City, MO; Beaverton, OR; and Washington, DC, offices to its roster of global presences, including Austin (HQ), San Francisco, New York, Portland, London, Sydney, Hamburg. and Bangalore. All employees will continue to work remotely into 2021 and will evaluate when to return to Khoros offices once health authorities consider it safe to do so.    How does this announcement affect the overall company strategy?   This aligns with our strategy very well. For several months we have been talking about the challenges facing Customers Support and Marketers in the fully digital situation we faced in 2020. Topbox’s expertise is in understanding customer sentiment, analyzing the data many of our customers are already collecting. This acquisition is fully aligned with our strategy and will only accelerate our ability to execute in the future.    How does this transaction affect Topbox customers? Topbox will continue to support Topbox customers, work with partners, and pursue prospects. In the next several weeks, the company will work to integrate with Khoros’ systems, processes, and teams to provide more opportunities for serving customers in the future.    How does this transaction affect Khoros customers? There is no impact to Khoros customers -- only an opportunity to get even more out of their customer engagement solutions as we integrate the products and facilitate their ability to create next-level customer experiences.  When will Khoros start selling and supporting Topbox?  Khoros will focus on a rapid integration of teams and products, with Topbox employees remaining on as Topbox solution experts.   Who should we contact for support, service or additional questions? A press release will be issued on January 4, 2021. Any media questions can be directed to khoros.com to view the official statement. Existing customers can contact their CSM with questions, and all support avenues remain the same. Additional questions may be sent to pr@khoros.com for more information. ... View more

Khoros Acquires CX Innovator Topbox and Closes Significant New Growth Investment from Vista Equity Partners     AUSTIN, Texas (January 4, 2021) — Khoros , a global leader in digital-first customer engagement software, today announced that it has acquired enterprise customer experience (CX) analytics software maker Topbox and closed on an additional equity investment from existing Khoros investors, including leading global technology investment firm Vista Equity Partners (“ Vista ”), to help accelerate the Company’s momentum in the CX market.    The acquisition of Topbox brings an innovative omnichannel CX analytics solution to Khoros’ award-winning digital customer engagement platform to create a powerful new standard for artificial intelligence (AI)-powered customer experience management. Khoros with Topbox, backed with additional funding from Vista and other existing investors, will deliver the CX industry’s most comprehensive solution that provides a unified, actionable view of the customer and enables enterprises to create and deliver next-level customer engagement and experiences.   “Topbox is an incredible company with a great product, and I’m excited to welcome Topbox to Khoros,” said Jack Blaha, CEO of Khoros. “Last year accelerated the push toward digital transformation and amplified the criticality for brands to be better connected to the voice of the customer. With the insights Topbox delivers, and the continued support from Vista and our other investors, Khoros’ platform is strongly positioned to empower more brands to communicate with their customers more effectively. Our vision is to help companies create customers for life, and that starts with great customer engagement — Khoros combined with Topbox makes that vision a reality.”   Topbox uses what Forrester Research calls “agnostic aggregation” of disparate data from  customer touchpoints such as call recordings, chat transcripts, emails, social media, surveys, reviews, in-app communications and web feedback, and applies proprietary Natural Language Processing (NLP) and AI technology to power a comprehensive CX analysis. Those insights become actionable through the power of the Khoros platform, where companies can engage with customers in the channel of their choice with more insight and intelligence than ever before.     “Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Topbox, where we will further our mission in providing businesses with innovative technology to listen to their customers, when and where they talk about their experiences,” said Chris Tranquill, CEO of Topbox. “There are thousands of organic conversations happening every day that contain business-changing insights, and we’re thrilled to join forces with Khoros to deliver actionable insights and even more value to customers.”    In addition to funding the Topbox acquisition, the new equity investment from Vista and other existing investors will be used to advance product innovation and accelerate organic growth, with continued focus on Khoros’ Engineering, Support, and Go-to-Market capabilities through 2021.    “We believe Khoros is uniquely positioned to win the massive CX market, which is expanding rapidly as enterprises realize the urgent need to transform the way they listen to and engage with customers,” said David Bonnette, Managing Director at Vista. “We are pleased to continue our partnership with Khoros and to support organic growth and innovation as well as strategic opportunities to incrementally augment capabilities as the Company continues to lead the next revolution in digital CX.”   About Khoros Khoros is a global leader in digital-first customer engagement software and services. We build enterprise software and offer expert services for digital customer service, messaging, chat, online brand communities, and social media management — differentiated by award-winning services with 20+ years of experience.    Over 2,000 brands use Khoros to power approximately 500 million daily digital interactions and create customers for life. Khoros has over 10 industry awards from TrustRadius, Stevie Awards, G2, and more. Khoros, built from Spredfast and Lithium, has 9 offices globally and Vista Equity Partners is its lead investor. For more information, visit khoros.com .    About Topbox Topbox Enterprise CX Analytics unifies data from every customer communication channel, VoC platform, and customer intelligence source for analysis as a single data set. The cloud-based solution contextualizes conversations based on your organization’s products, processes, and common issues, for deep understanding of the root causes behind customer behavior and sentiment. Topbox turns customer interactions into leading indicators for organizational KPIs, and paves the way for improved customer retention, expansion, and acquisition. Learn more: www.topbox.io .    About Vista Equity Partners Vista is a leading global investment firm with more than $73 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2020. The firm exclusively invests in enterprise software, data and technology-enabled organizations across private equity, permanent capital, credit and public equity strategies, bringing an approach that prioritizes creating enduring market value for the benefit of its global ecosystem of investors, companies, customers and employees. Vista’s investments are anchored by a sizable long-term capital base, experience in structuring technology-oriented transactions and proven, flexible management techniques that drive sustainable growth. Vista believes the transformative power of technology is the key to an even better future – a healthier planet, a smarter economy, a diverse and inclusive community and a broader path to prosperity. Further information is available at vistaequitypartners.com . Follow Vista on LinkedIn, @Vista Equity Partners , and on Twitter, @Vista_Equity .   ###   Media Contacts   For Khoros: Mandy Mayekawa pr@khoros.com     For Vista Equity Partners: Dafna Tapiero vista@laurelstrategies.com   202-776-7776 ... View more