Cork's Spearline founders to get windfall after sale to US firm Cyara

The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed at the time but new documents have emerged that indicate how good the deal was for shareholders. 

Spearline CEO and co-founder Kevin Buckley is one of the main beneficiaries of the windfall.

New filings have revealed the scale of the windfall for shareholders in the Skibbereen-based tech company Spearline after it was recently acquired by the Silicon Valley firm Cyara.

A declaration of solvency showed that the parent company of Spearline, Haven Sunrise Holdings, has assets of €2.4m, and liabilities of €20,237.

Subsequently, the company pushed the button on a members’ voluntary liquidation, a process that will involve the company’s assets being distributed to the shareholders, who will receive around €2m from the winding up of the business after the liabilities are discharged.

The main beneficiaries of the windfall are Matthew Lawlor, Kevin Buckley, Elisabeth Lawlor Colineau, Julie Buckley and Brendan McLoughlin. The telecoms firm Spearline was founded in 2003 by Mr Buckley and Mr Lawlor and employs more than 200 people worldwide, with offices in Cork, Waterford and India.

Last month it was purchased by Cyara, which provides automated customer engagement services, for an undisclosed sum. "We are excited for Spearline to become part of this combined powerhouse," said Mr Buckley at the time.

It is unclear if Spearline’s workforce will be entirely absorbed by Cyara following the deal as a spokesperson for the company said they “cannot comment” on this query. However, the sale to Cyara will place Mr Buckley in the role of senior vice president of Spearline while Mr Lawlor will become vice president of engineering of Spearline.

“Other Spearline executives will remain with the company and will report to their Cyara counterparts,” said the spokesperson.

Cyara decided to buy the Cork company as it wanted to combine its chatbot services with Spearline’s communication technology to “support a remote workforce”, said Alok Kulkarni, CEO of Cyara.

Spearline provides global an in-country dialling service that provides mobile and landline assurance in over 80 countries used by companies including Amazon Connect and Zoom.

Months before it was bought by Cyara, Spearline expanded its business by acquiring diagnostics technology company Callstats from California-based 8x8. Spearline bought the company for Callstats’ tools used for testing and monitoring critical business telecommunication services.

Mr Lawlor said this deal was a "huge step forward" for Spearline. This acquisition followed the company’s purchase of the Israeli-based communications solutions provider testRTC in 2021.

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