As I mentioned after Vegas, MITEL is buying Polycom for almost $2B according to Reuters.
Polycom brand to be retained, but the execs at Polycom lost this battle. CEO and CFO of MITEL stay in roles and the combined org is headquartered in Canada, much to the delight of Canada and the tax burdens.
MITEL bought Aastra in 2014 for $400M. Aastra sold phones and PBX. Aastra even re-sold Broadsoft as an Enterprise PBX. MITEL acquired Mavenir to add some mobile messaging pieces last year. MITEL's debt was $645M before this (on about $1.1B in annual non-GAAP revenue). The loan from BoAML will be for $1.1Billion.
Polycom had seen its peak in the handset market. A number of factors are pounding at it, including Yealink and a host of other handset manufacturers jumping in the market; end users are moving to softphones and mobile clients; and non-handset sales are going to Jabra, Plantronics and Sennheiser for headsets and speaker phones.
Polycom's plans for video were delayed. There are reported problems with the chipset in the lower end VVX models. It is tough to be the leader for so long. Just ask Microsoft or Cisco.
Hard to believe that it comes to this. MITEL buys them. (Just shaking my head).
See the press release for the Global scale and strategic scope provide key customer benefits
It is funny that this happens right after one of their biggest distributors - NETXUSA - gets acquired.
In another merger, Zhone, a leading fiber optic equipment maker, is merging with Dasan. Zhone Technologies Inc says combined company will be called Dasan Zhone Solutions, Inc. and will have two Co-CEOs. (That always works.)
Imagine that you are so worried about the financial stability of your vendor and then you read this: ""The merger of Zhone and Dasan Network Solutions will immediately position our company as a leading provider of Broadband Access, Mobile Backhaul, Ethernet Switching and Passive Optical LAN solutions," stated Jim Norrod, CEO of Zhone Technologies." That many lines of business in a merged company that will have a workforce reduction for synergies? Yeah. Your troubles didn't go away.
It is consolidation everywhere. Fiat Chrysler is looking to merge with one of these car makers: Toyota, Volkswagen and Ford. Merger-Mania.
