SAN FRANCISCO and AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lithium Technologies, LLC ("Lithium") and Spredfast, Inc. ("Spredfast"), two leaders in digital customer engagement, announced an agreement today to merge. The combination of Lithium and Spredfast creates the industry's most comprehensive customer engagement platform, transforming how companies connect with customers to earn trust, drive brand loyalty and grow their businesses.

"We couldn't be more excited about joining forces with the dynamic team at Spredfast," said Pete Hess, CEO of Lithium. "Brands focus on improving the trust they earn with their customers. Their success depends on world-class digital engagement, and the merger of Lithium and Spredfast will provide them with the best platform to earn that trust and help grow their business."

With a combined customer base of more than 2,000 brands spanning 100 countries, Lithium and Spredfast together manage over 500 million consumer touch points every day across social media, messaging, and owned digital channels. Lithium's expertise in customer care combined with Spredfast's leadership in social marketing creates the industry's most unique and complete platform. Together, the combined platform will enable businesses to engage with their customers in the customer's preferred channels across the entire customer journey, giving brands the ability to generate and retain more profitable revenue.

"This is a great day for Spredfast. We can't wait to come together with the Lithium team to create the industry's most innovative and robust suite on the market," said Rod Favaron, Chairman and CEO of Spredfast. "No other company will offer the unparalleled industry and technology expertise to reimagine how businesses think about customer engagement."

Only Lithium and Spredfast together can offer:

A single platform to connect, manage and interact across all of a company's owned brand channels, including brand communities and social media

Deep insights and analytics across the entire customer journey

A combined 20+ years of award-winning solutions and industry best practices

"We are thrilled to welcome Spredfast to our portfolio of high-performing software companies," said Alan Cline, Principal at Vista Equity Partners. "We see an incredible opportunity to unify consumer engagement in the highly fractured marketing and care industries, bringing together the power of two best-of-breed offerings into a game-changing platform for growth."

The combined company will be led by Pete Hess as CEO. Rod Favaron will work closely with the management team to help ensure a smooth and successful transition. The combined company will be headquartered in San Francisco, CA and Austin, TX will be the company's largest office.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

About Lithium Technologies

The Lithium platform is the leading solution for digital customer care and engagement. Lithium offers Community, Social Media Management and Messaging to help Fortune 1000 companies listen, respond and act on digital conversations – creating deep customer relationships and fostering brand advocacy. With over 15 years of expertise, Lithium has a massive digital footprint of approximately 500 million digital interactions analyzed daily and 50 million digital interactions powered monthly. Learn more at lithium.com, join our community at community.lithium.com, or follow us on Twitter @LithiumTech.

About Spredfast

Spredfast is transforming the way companies connect with consumers. Spredfast's smart social software enables companies to build lasting relationships with today's digitally connected consumer. Brand and media companies use the Spredfast Social Software Platform to manage, integrate, and amplify social content across any digital touch point in real time. With global reach, Spredfast customers manage over one billion social connections across 84 countries. More than 650 customers have partnered with Spredfast to create first-class social experiences. Spredfast is the secret weapon of all five major broadcast networks and over fifty percent of Interbrand's 2017 World's Best Brands, all of whom are fueling business impact through social.

About Vista Equity Partners

Vista Equity Partners, a U.S.-based investment firm with offices in Austin, San Francisco, Chicago, and Oakland, currently invests in software, data and technology-enabled organizations led by world-class management teams with long-term perspectives. Vista is a value-added investor, contributing professional expertise and multi-level support towards companies' realization of their full potential. Vista's investment approach is anchored by a sizable long-term capital base, experience in structuring technology-oriented transactions, and proven management techniques that yield flexibility and opportunity in private equity investing. For more information, please visit www.vistaequitypartners.com

SOURCE Lithium Technologies