Absolute Software to Acquire LiveTime for IT Help Desk

Transaction enhances Absolute's Asset Management capability and provides entry to the IT Service Support Management market

VANCOUVER , Nov. 5, 2012 /CNW/ - Absolute^® Software Corporation ("Absolute" or the "Company") (ABT.TO), the leading provider of persistent endpoint security and management solutions for PCs, Macs, iOS, Android, Windows and BlackBerry devices, today announced it is acquiring the assets of privately-held LiveTime Software, a SaaS and on-premise help desk and IT Service Support Management (ITSSM) provider.

LiveTime Service Manager enables IT teams to become proactive in their organization's business strategy.  It gives IT a platform to migrate their service from one of reactive incident response to a more holistic approach involving the entire business, its processes and workflows. With LiveTime in place, IT can provide exceptional customer assistance, streamline technology costs, implement workflows for service requests, incidents, change requests, releases and service level agreements, and audit compliance with policies and regulations. All of this is done through an easy-to-use, highly scalable web-based service platform that works on the same device platforms as Absolute's existing solutions.

LiveTime's technology is proven and robust with a global reference customer base that spans large to small organizations in the education, corporate, government and healthcare market verticals. The business is currently profitable and cash flow positive. LiveTime Service Manager has received PinkVERIFY ITIL 3 Certification from Pink Elephant for 11 Processes. Pink Elephant's PinkVERIFY assessment is recognized as the IT service management industry's original program for certification of software that supports the definitions and workflow requirements defined by ITIL.
"The benefits of this transaction are twofold," said John Livingston , Chairman and CEO at Absolute Software. "First, LiveTime will quickly meet the needs of Absolute Manage customers that are looking for help desk and service management functionality. This need was identified in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Client Management Tools, and has been a regular request from our customer base. Second, LiveTime products, which will be re-branded as Absolute Service and Absolute Help, open up another $4 billion market for Absolute.  By leveraging our traditional technology strengths and sales infrastructure, we are well positioned to penetrate this market and to generate long-term organic growth."

Consistent with all of Absolute's solutions, Absolute Help and Absolute Service will be differentiated based on ease of use, rapid deployment and multiple device support; providing customers with the required functionality without the extensive professional services and development work most solutions in the market currently require. The systems will also integrate tightly with Absolute's current solutions. A portion of this work is already done, as the LiveTime help desk product completed baseline integration with Absolute Manage several years ago.  The integration work will also extend the benefits of Absolute's Computrace^® persistence platform.

"We are excited about the accelerated growth opportunity this transaction creates for our LiveTime technology," said Dr. Darren Williams , CEO of LiveTime. "By joining Absolute, we gain access to more robust sales channels as well as a larger marketing, research and development, and customer support infrastructure.  Further, Absolute's SaaS and on-premise solutions perfectly complement our offerings, which will create a best-of-breed solution platform for our mutual customers. We have already been winning deals over the leading ITSSM vendors and expect this transaction to rapidly increase our market penetration."

The total cost of the acquisition is less than $15 million and consists of a mixture of cash and stock, of which approximately 60% is due on completion with the remainder due based on a three year earn-out. Absolute expects this transaction to be neutral to cash from operating activities in fiscal 2013 and accretive to cash from operating activities in fiscal 2014. Absolute intends to complete this acquisition on or around November 19 ^th, 2012, subject to approval by the Toronto Stock Exchange.

"With LiveTime, we are acquiring market-leading technology together with the key people who built it and who are truly visionaries in their space," added Mr. Livingston . "These are the same characteristics that made our last acquisition great. LiveTime complements our existing offerings, giving us a unique platform amongst the leading ITSSM vendors. We will leverage our existing sales channels, Software-as-a-Service business model, current customer base and unique embedded position in computer firmware to drive growth over the long-term. We welcome the LiveTime team and look forward to becoming a major player in the help desk and ITSSM market."

About Absolute Software

Absolute Software Corporation (ABT.TO) is the world leader in firmware-embedded endpoint security and management for computers and ultra-portable devices. The Company, a leader in device security and management tracking for more than 18 years, has over 30,000 commercial customers worldwide. Positioned as a Visionary vendor in Gartner, Inc.'s Magic Quadrant for Client Management Tools, Absolute's solutions - Computrace, Absolute Manage, Absolute Secure Drive, and Computrace LoJack for Laptops - provide organizations with actionable intelligence to prove compliance, securely manage BYOD,  and deliver comprehensive visibility and control over all of their devices and data. The Company's Computrace persistence technology is embedded in the firmware of computers, netbooks, and tablets by global leaders, including Acer, ASUS, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, Motion, Panasonic, Samsung, and Toshiba, and the Company has reselling partnerships with these OEMs and others, including Apple. For more information about Absolute Software, visit www.absolute.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements relate to, among other things, the expected performance, functionality and availability of our services and products, and other expectations, intentions and plans contained in this press release that are not historical fact. When used in this press release, the words "plan," "expect," "believe," and similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements. These statements reflect our current expectations. They are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, changes in technology and general market conditions. In light of the many risks and uncertainties you should understand that we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements contained in this press release will be realized.

©2012 Absolute Software Corporation. All rights reserved. Computrace and Absolute are registered trademarks of Absolute Software Corporation. LoJack is a registered trademark of LoJack Corporation, used under license by Absolute Software Corporation. LoJack Corporation is not responsible for any content herein. U.S. patents No. 5,715,174, No. 5,764,892, No. 5,802,280, No. 5,896,497, No. 6,087,937, No. 6,244,758, No. 6,269,392, No. 6,300,863, No. 6,507,914, No. 7,818,557, No. 7,818,803, No. 7,945,709 and No. 8,062,380. Canadian patents No. 2,211,735, No. 2,284,806, and No. 2,205,370. U.K. patents No. EP0793823, No. GB2298302, and No. GB2338101. German patent No. 69512534. Australian patent No. 699045. Japanese patent No. JP4067035. The Toronto Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the information contained in this news release.

SOURCE: Absolute Software Corporation

Contact:

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Marina Guy, Absolute Software
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or
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