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Notable Exits

Leading cybersecurity firm Proofpoint Inc. acquired Wombat Security Technologies for $225 million at the beginning of 2018. Wombat’s exit was a big win for Pittsburgh’s cybersecurity industry and is one of the top exits to come out of technology launched at Carnegie Mellon University in recent years. "You always have high expectations when you start a company, but there's nothing more rewarding than to see the results of your research having an impact on this scale. Our research at CMU has effectively created an entirely new segment in the cybersecurity industry, one that focuses on the human element," said Norman Sadeh, professor of computer science and chairman and chief scientist of Wombat, at the time of the acquisition. Proofpoint has retained a Pittsburgh office since the acquisition.

JazzHR was acquired by Jobvite for $ 175 million in 2021 in a leveraged buyout deal with K1 Investment Management as a financial sponsor. Another job recruitment platform, NXTThing RPO, was also included in the deal, to form a new combined company called Employ. Pete Lamson, the former CEO of JazzHR, took charge as CEO of the new firm. At the time, he said “Through our combined businesses, we are unparalleled in markets we cover, with purpose-built and data-driven solutions ranging from SMB to enterprise. We are the only talent acquisition provider to offer discrete SMBand enterprise-grade technology solutions and couple both with industry-leading recruitment services. Whatever the customer size, budget, technology, or service level required, Jobvite, JazzHR, and NXTThing RPO have the solutions our markets need.”

Voci Technologies, a speech recognition technology firm, was acquired by experience management software company Medallia (NS: MDLA) for $59.6 million in 2020. “Our whole company is delighted to be joining forces with experience management leaderMedallia. We are thrilled that Voci’s powerful speech-to-text capabilities will become part of Medallia Experience Cloud,” said Mike Coney, former CEO of Voci, at the time of the acquisition. “The consolidation of all contact center signals with video, survey, and other critical feedback is a game changer for the industry.”

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Notable Exits

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