Zoom to acquire call centre provider Five9 Inc in $14.7 billion deal

In its largest-ever acquisition, Zoom Video Communications Inc is all set to acquire Five9 Inc for $14.7 billion in a bid to promote the video conference app against its market competitors. 

The company signed an agreement with Five9 Inc and announced Sunday that it will be giving its investors 0.5533 shares of its Class A common stock, making it Zoom’s operating unit after the finalisation. The deal is expected to close in early 2022, subject to shareholder approval. 

The acquisition could propel Zoom into a $24 billion market for contact centres, helping it better compete with the likes of RingCentral Inc and Amazon.com Inc in enabling clients provide customer service around the world via the internet, said the company. 

Zoom revealed in a statement that the company aims to design a cloud-based calling service called Zoom Phone after the deal. This will further involve the sale of each other’s products to the customers, with Five9 Inc having biggies like Under Armour, Citrix, Athena Health and Lululemon in the roster of its clients. 

We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our platform, and the addition of Five9 is a natural fit,” Zoom Chief Executive Officer Eric Yuan said in a statement.

Zoom rose to prominence last year when the pandemic hit the world as people started using the app to connect remotely with peers, colleagues and friends in a personal and professional setup. However, with increasing vaccination and the opening up of public spaces, the usage of the app is likely to go down this year, as per the investors. 

According to Bloomberg Intelligence, “The unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) market share of total IT spending may remain stable at around 5% as companies shift to cloud-native platforms, and should stay so post-pandemic. That’s because organizations are rethinking their plans for digital technologies to include video, voice and team collaboration tools as flexible or hybrid-work models gain traction.”