Big news for the telecoms world!
Plantronics, the leading headset maker, has announced that it will be acquiring video conferencing equipment maker, Polycom in a whopping cash-and-stock deal worth $2 billion (£1.4 billion for us Brits). The deal comes two years after Polycom was acquired by private-equity firm Siris Capital for $1.7 billion (£1.2 billion), which ended the company’s three-month-old deal with Mitel Networks.
The new collaboration will be offering consumers cutting edge messaging systems, telephone and conferencing services in a single market which is believed to be worth $40 billion (£28 billion).
Joe Burton, President and Chief Executive Officer of Plantronics said:
“With the addition of Polycom’s solutions across video, audio and collaboration we will be able to deliver a comprehensive portfolio of communications and collaboration touch points and services to our customers and channel partners. This will put Plantronics in an ideal position to solve for today’s enterprise collaboration requirements while capitalizing on market opportunities associated with the evolving, intelligent enterprise.”
Mary T. McDowell, Chief Executive Officer of Polycom stated:
“Polycom has returned to growth by focusing on building strong ecosystem partnerships and delivering innovative, smart solutions for our customers and partners.”
“Bringing Plantronics and Polycom together will broaden the breadth of solutions available to customers and partners and create a consistent end-user experience across many collaboration applications and devices. As one company, Plantronics and Polycom will make it even easier for all customers to solve big-business problems through human-to-human connections.”
The headset makers hope to take the market by storm by becoming the one stop shop for businesses in need of communication management. The deal is expected to close by the third quarter of 2018.
Good luck to both parties
