Zoom to acquire cloud contact center software provider Five9 for $14.7bn

Communications technology company Zoom Video Communications has signed an all-stock deal worth nearly $14.7 billion to acquire Five9, a California-based publicly listed cloud contact center platform provider.

Under the terms of the transaction, Five9’s shareholders will exchange each of their shares in the company for 0.5533 of Zoom Video Communications’ shares.

The cloud contact center software provider is said to cater to more than 2,000 customers globally and facilitates over seven billion customer interactions annually.

Five9’s cloud contact center offers digital engagement, automation of workflow, analytics, workforce optimization as well as practical artificial intelligence (AI) for helping its customers to transform their customer experience.

The highly-scalable and secure Five9 cloud contact center has a suite of applications to offer for managing and streamlining customer interactions across multiple channels.

Zoom Video Communications believes that the combination of its communications platform with the Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) of Five9 will change how businesses connect with their customers.

Additionally, the acquisition is expected to help Zoom Video Communications increase its presence with enterprise customers and speed up its long-term growth opportunity with the addition of the contact center market.

Commenting on Zoom acquisition of Five9, Eric S. Yuan – CEO and Founder, 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 happiness and value to our customers.

“Zoom is built on a core belief that robust and reliable communications technology enables interactions that build greater empathy and trust, and we believe that holds particularly true for customer engagement. Enterprises communicate with their customers primarily through the contact center, and we believe this acquisition creates a leading customer engagement platform that will help redefine how companies of all sizes connect with their customers.

“We are thrilled to join forces with the Five9 team, and I look forward to welcoming them to the Zoom family.”

Zoom Video Communications also said that Five9 is complementary to its Zoom Phone offering, which is a cloud phone system that works as a digital alternative to legacy phone solutions to enable businesses in connecting and interacting in new and easier ways.

After the closing of the acquisition, Five9 will become a business unit of Zoom Video Communications, while its CEO Rowan Trollope will become a president of the latter.

Rowan Trollope, who will continue to be CEO of Five9, commenting on Zoom acquisition of Five9, said: “Businesses spend significant resources annually on their contact centers, but still struggle to deliver a seamless experience for their customers.

“It has always been Five9’s mission to make it easy for businesses to fix that problem and engage with their customers in a more meaningful and efficient way.

“Joining forces with Zoom will provide Five9’s business customers access to best-of-breed solutions, particularly Zoom Phone, that will enable them to realize more value and deliver real results for their business. This, combined with Zoom’s ‘ease-of use’ philosophy and broad communication portfolio, will truly enable customers to engage via their preferred channel of choice.”

Zoom acquisition of Five9 is likely to close in the first half of 2022 should it get approval from Five9’s shareholders, regulators, and meet other customary closing conditions.