Shareholder Vote Stops Zoom, Five9 Acquisition

By

In July, Zoom and Five9 made headlines with acquisition chatter. The all-stock $14.9 billion deal would have positioned Zoom to enter the $24 billion contact center market with authority. This week, the shareholders had something to say.

While Zoom CEO Eric Yuan laid out a compelling argument for the transaction, Five9 shareholders stopped the acquisition. Five9 remains a valued contact center partner like Genesys, NICE inContact, Talkdesk and Twilio.

Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis counseled shareholders to vote down the deal, due to concerns over growth and dual class shares. ISS isn’t alone in concerns. The U.S. Justice Department launched a review of the acquisition, citing national security concerns.

Despite the “Cons,” the deal was never thought in doubt, and nobody surprised by the narrative of collaboration colossus championing the cloud contact center amid its pandemic ascension.

Some analysts believe this is more of a “not now,” than flat out “no.”  Yuan views Five9 as an “attractive opportunity,” we know this. While a second overture is possible, Yuan noted in a company blog,  the purchase of Five9 “was in no way foundational to the success of our platform nor was it the only way for us to offer our customers a compelling contact center solution.”

Since announcing the purchase in July, Zoom’s stock has dipped, to say the least, as Q2 growth missed expectation. Five9 on the other hand, jumped nearly 20% since the news – taking a small dip yesterday after the shareholder vote.

Zoom is moving forward with an early 2022 release of the Zoom Video Engagement Center (VEC), its response to customer demand to create a customer engagement solution.  

In its brief history of 10 years, Zoom has achieved “Kleenex” status. With its current contact center integrations remaining in place, and the VEC on the horizon, I wouldn’t be too concerned about Zoom’s future.




Edited by Maurice Nagle
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Related Articles

Spotify's AI DJ is Gaining Traction, Expanding into New Markets

By: Alex Passett    6/1/2023

Music streaming giant Spotify previously launched its AI DJ feature in the U.S. and Canada, and now the U.K. and Ireland, as well. This AI-powered DJ …

Read More

Scepter, ExxonMobil and AWS to Develop Innovative Platform for Methane Monitoring

By: Greg Tavarez    6/1/2023

Scepter and ExxonMobil joined forces with AWS to develop an innovative data analytics platform aimed at characterizing and quantifying methane emissio…

Read More

Prepare for Impact: AI Will Revolutionize Every Organization, Application, and Service

By: Reece Loftus    5/30/2023

The opportunity cost in not embracing AI is very real because of the ways AI improves productivity and quality and reduces cost at an unprecedented ra…

Read More

NextPlane's Affordable Microsoft Teams PSTN Calling Solution for UCaaS and Service Providers

By: TMCnet Staff    5/23/2023

NextPlane's Affordable Microsoft Teams PSTN Calling Solution for UCaaS and Service Providers

Read More

5 Gmail Security Tips Every Business Should Know

By: Contributing Writer    5/17/2023

Gmail security refers to the various features and best practices implemented by Google to protect Gmail users' accounts and data from unauthorized acc…

Read More