Making Lemonade or M&A

For the months it took to reach a definitive agreement to merge between Broadvox and Cypress Communications, those of us in the know knew that silence was important. When one my direct reports figured out we were performing due diligence and engaging in merger and acquisition discussions, it became a question of making "lemonade". I thought the word fit the effort as our desire was to create something new from separate elements and it rhymed (somewhat) with M&A.

Merging Cypress and Broadvox make fantastic lemonade. Each company brings to the table a unique history and product offering. Look at what is complementary, our products, sales channels, markets, operations and even personnel. The proposed merger is complementary in every way. I know some people see the similarities before they understand the differences, but let's take a quick look at the differences:

·         Cypress is a CLEC in its markets while Broadvox is an ITSP.

·         Cypress has a significant managed services business while Broadvox has only recently begun selling a hosted virtual PBX offering.

·         Cypress sells to SMBs and Enterprises while the majority of Broadvox revenue comes from its carrier/wholesale customer base.

·         Cypress has successfully penetrated major legal and financial firms while Broadvox gains most of its VoIP revenue satisfying the needs of SMBs.

·         Cypress delivers TDM and VoIP products while Broadvox is strictly VoIP/SIP.

·         Cypress has an extraordinary team of sales people driving its VoIP revenues while Broadvox has built an award winning indirect sales channel to establish itself as a market leader in VoIP.

Contrasting and appreciating the fit of these two companies could continue for a bit more but let's look at the result. The combined companies will have more than 10,000 customers, approximately 300 employees, an expanded network footprint including MPLS, hosted PBX platforms that target specific market segment needs and requirements and the best VoIP/SIP Trunking engineers in the country.

To the members of the Broadvox Partner program, please understand that this merger will benefit you as well. Broadvox will have additional services that you can sell and deliver to your prospects and customers such as Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). And for those of you with the skills and infrastructure to serve the Fortune 1000, the Cypress product offering will only expand those opportunities.

The only hard part in all of this is the need to be patient. The proposed merger requires the approval of the FCC, state PUCs and other government entities. We estimate the time for approval at between 45 to 60 days which is not very long. However, anticipating the taste of the lemonade will make it seem a lot longer.

See you on Monday...