The terms weren't disclosed. But the reason less than half of mergers and acquisitions are successful is that not enough attention is paid to what happens afterward. In Melita's case, employees were distracted by last summer's roller-coaster negotiations and the company missed its quarterly financial target. We took our eyes off the ball. Melita has continued to struggle since it took over eShare, reporting its first yearly loss since going public.
Officials blame the disappointing results in part on an ill-conceived integration strategy.
In retrospect, Szlam said, he should have moved quickly to combine Melita's telephone business with eShare's Internet operation instead of keeping them separate. Melita's software speeds the phone work of customer service representatives while eShare's enables them to instantly answer the questions of online shoppers via the Web. We kind of screwed up. Combining one business with another can be daunting. Product lines and facilities may not be complementary.