Zoom outlines investment strategy after Five9 acquisition falls through
The video conferencing giant gave an update on how it will invest in the channel after the deal fell through
Zoom has said it will continue to invest in and enhance its partner programmes and teams following the mutual termination of the acquisition of Five9.
The video conferencing giant gave an update on how it will invest in the channel after the $14.7bn acquisition of Five9 fell through in October last year.
The deal was terminated after the cloud-based call centre operator did not obtain the requisite stockholder support for the merger agreement.
Dion Smith, EMEA head of channel at Zoom, said the company plans to maintain existing contact centre partnerships with companies like Five9, Genesys, NICE inContact, Talkdesk, and Twilio.
He added: "In terms of investments, the relationship we have with our channel partners is never one-sided, and we're continuing to invest in and focus on enhancing our partner programs and teams.
"Our goal is to support our partners in their journey as they develop new competencies, grow their businesses with Zoom, and add value to their clients."
He also added that Zoom has developed a "range" of channel models "embracing both how customers want to buy and how channels want to deliver value".
"In addition, the insights we gain from our partners provide information and data that help us continue to innovate and progress our platform," Smith said.
"We also understand that in a dynamic and fast-moving market, UCaaS can be approached from a range of angles and with a number of areas of expertise including video-first specialists, traditional on-premise PBX providers, network carriers, and traditional UcaaS companies."
Zoom's chief financial officer Kelly Steckelberg also said that adding new channel partners is helping "further accelerate growth in deal number and size" as it continues to invest in EMEA.
She said the video conferencing company has grown in "breadth and depth" in EMEA, adding that annual revenue in the region has grown 237 per cent in the last two years.
Steckelberg said: "This is a reflection of our investments and the result of customers choosing and using Zoom. We've seen our customer count grow in this region by over 276 per cent on the same time period.
"To drive this growth and to support our customers, we've added headcount across the board, increasing our total headcount in the region, as well as in each area of sales, technical support and engineering by more than 90 per cent in the last two years.
"As we have also added channel partners we have added strength and reach. This further accelerates our growth in deal number and size. We continue to be committed to grow and expand across each of these areas in EMEA."