Mitel to buy Polycom for $2B in a tough enterprise communications market
Mitel's planned acquisition of phone and videoconferencing veteran Polycom for nearly $2 billion comes as the enterprise communications industry faces dramatic changes brought by mobility and cloud-based services.
The Ottawa-based maker of corporate voice systems has agreed to pay $1.96 billion for Polycom in a deal it says would form the biggest conference phone and business cloud communications company in the world. The deal, announced Friday, still needs shareholder approval but is expected to close in the third quarter.
The combined company would be led by Mitel CEO Richard McBee under the Mitel name, but it would maintain Polycom’s brand. With about 7,700 employees across five continents, it would bring in annual revenue of $2.5 billion, the companies said. Economies of scale and steps like consolidating facilities would cut costs.
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