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August 28, 2008

PR - West Corporation Bids $270 million for Genesys Conferencing

February 19, 2008
 
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West Corporation, a leading provider of outsourced communication solutions, and Genesys, a leading global multimedia collaboration service provider, today announced that West will seek to acquire Genesys and combine it with InterCall, Inc., a West subsidiary. West will make a cash offer of €2.50 per ordinary share and for the American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at the U.S. dollar equivalent. For that purpose, West International Holdings Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of West, filed today with the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (the AMF) a draft Tender Offer Prospectus (Projet de Note d'information).

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Genesys' board of directors has unanimously expressed support for this project and authorized the execution of a tender offer agreement between the two companies. Genesys' board of directors intends to recommend the offer to its shareholders. In accordance with French law and the tender offer agreement, such recommendation will be published in a draft Response Document (Projet de Note d'information en réponse) to be filed by Genesys with the AMF within the next 10 business days.

The tender offer price of €2.50 (approximately U.S. $3.68) per share of common stock of Genesys, represents a premium of 50 percent above the closing price of Genesys' shares on February 18, 2008, the last trading day prior to this announcement, and a premium of 42 percent above the average closing price of Genesys' shares (volume-weighted) over the last three months. The total transaction value, excluding transaction expenses, is approximately €182.9 million (approximately U.S. $268.8 million) and is expected to be funded with a combination of West's cash on hand (EUR and USD) and West's bank credit facilities. West expects to close the transaction during the second quarter.

"West is committed to expanding InterCall's global presence and today's announcement represents a significant step in achieving this goal," stated Thomas B. Barker, Chief Executive Officer of West Corporation. "When completed, this transaction will strengthen our leadership position and give our combined client base more collaboration solutions and personal attention in more locations than any other conferencing provider in the world."

"Genesys has developed a leading multimedia conferencing solution for the global enterprise and is recognized by the industry as a leader in conferencing technology," said Francois Legros, Chairman and CEO of Genesys. "The board of directors and I are excited to see that the innovation and hard work of our employees and partners are validated and will now be part of a much bigger organization."

Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin (Europe) Limited acted as financial advisor to Genesys and Lehman Brothers Inc. acted as financial advisor to West Corporation.

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