Zoom, the videoconferencing company whose growth was supercharged by the pandemic over the past year, will buy the cloud call center company Five9 in an all-stock deal valued at about $14.7 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is far greater than Zoom\u2019s market valuation a little over two years ago when it went public for slightly more than $9 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan said in a blog post Sunday that the acquisition will accelerate the company\u2019s long-term growth by adding the $24 billion contact center market. That will give Zoom greater exposure to more business clients. Yuan added that it also the deal also complements the Zoom Phone, a cloud phone system that is seeing strong demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The size of the deal would have seemed unthinkable when Zoom Video Communications Inc. went public in early 2019, before it became a household name. With the arrival of the pandemic and a global shift to working from home, Zoom is everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its stock, which could be bought for less than $70 each at the start of 2020 just before the detection in the U.S. of COVID-19, is now worth five times that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was indications that Zoom might be in the hunt for acquisitions early this year that would accommodate more growth. In January, the company announced a secondary offering of shares that could raise up to $1.5 billion for, among other things, \u201cacquisitions or strategic investments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shares dipped almost 4% at the opening bell Monday, trading for $348.88.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shareholders of Five9 Inc. stockholders will receive 0.5533 shares of Class A common stock of Zoom for each share of Five9. Based on Zoom\u2019s closing price on Friday, this represents a per share price for Five9 common stock of $200.28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n