After experiencing huge growth like many Cloud UC vendors) during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom has made its first major acquisition by agreeing to buy cloud contact center Five9 for $14.7 billion.
In the past year, Zoom have been adding more enterprise and home collaboration tools to its services including new room systems partnerships and office collaboration products, their new cloud phone system, and an all-in-one home communications appliances in an aim to rule the home and enterprise market space.
This acquisition will allow Zoom to expand into call center space (a market said to be worth around $24 billion. In the official announcement, Zoom CEO, Eric Yuan said “We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our platform and the addition of Five9 is a natural fit that will deliver even more… value to our customers,”.
Once the audition completes in early 2022,Five9 will become an operating unit of Zoom and its chief executive, Rowan Trollope (Ex Cisco), will become a president of the company.
How are Five9?
Five9 was founded in 2001 and has around 2,000 customers globally, including major brands like SalesForce and Under Armour. They processes in excess 7 billion minutes of calls annually.
Zoom, (like other leading UCaaS vendors) already partner and integrate their solutions Five9 to add integrated contact and customer experience solutions into its platform. The contact centre business has grown hugely since the start of COVID-19 and with customer habits now “the way of life”, the move to deliver a better online customer experience will now benefit zoom through these new integrated revenue streams.
It’s a 3 legged race in the UCaaS market…
According to Gartner, global spending on cloud-based video conferencing technology is forecast to reach $5.5 billion this year, up from $5.0 billion in 2020, a space where today, Zoom, Microsoft and Cisco as the clear front runners leaders. Cisco and Zoom will now own a slice of the contact centre market directly while Microsoft continue to leverage the partner eco system to drive options and choice to customers.
Thanks for reading and I welcome your thoughts and feedback on this acquisition and the UCaaS space generally…