NICE To Sell Its Intelligence Division To Elbit Systems, Updates Outlook

(RTTNews) - NICE Systems (NICE) Thursday said it has entered into an agreement to sell its Intelligence division to Elbit Systems, for a total consideration of up to $157.9 million, subject to certain performance milestones and customary adjustments.

NICE's Intelligence division offers solutions to law enforcement agencies, intelligence organizations and signal intelligence agencies with tools for generating intelligence from communications.

This divestiture will allow NICE to place greater focus on the execution of its long-term strategic plan and to focus on its core markets and business model.

The transaction is scheduled to close in early in the third quarter of 2015.

Within the structure of the agreement, NICE will receive $117.9 million in cash at the time of the closing. An additional amount of up to $40 million will be paid as earn-out, based upon the future business performance of the acquired division's activities.

Further, the company said its previous annual guidance included Intelligence division's full year contribution of $80 million in non-GAAP revenue and $0.09 in adjusted earnings per share. The previous second quarter guidance included the Intelligence division's contribution of $20 million in adjusted revenue and $0.03 in adjusted earnings per share.

As a result of this agreement, the company revised its guidance and now expects second quarter 2015 non-GAAP total revenues from its continued operations to be in a range of $229 million to $237 million, compared to the previous guidance of $249 million to $257 million.

Second quarter non-GAAP earnings per share from its continued operations is expected to be in a range of $0.64 to $0.70, in comparison with the previous outlook of $0.67 to $0.73.

Wall Street expects quarterly earnings of $0.74 per share on revenues of $263.71 million.

The company now expects full-year 2015 non-GAAP total revenues to be in a range of $985 million to $1.005 billion, while it previously projected $1.065 billion to $1.085 billion.

Full-year adjusted earnings per share are expected to be in a range of $3.01 to $3.12, compared to the previous guidance of $3.10 to $3.21.

Analysts expect earnings of $3.17 per share on revenues of $1.08 billion.

The company expects the divestiture to be neutral to earnings in 2016.