Telecomm giant Vonage announced earlier this month that it has closed on a deal to acquire NewVoiceMedia, a Cloud Contact Center-as-a-service firm, for $350 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. According to the terms of the negotiation, NewVoiceMedia will maintain its current leadership structure, with CEO Dennis Fois still leading the team.
In an announcement that was released to publicize the deal, Vonage CEO Alan Masarek noted that the acquisition will help the larger firm pursue its goal of providing a differentiated, fully-programmable communications solution and to drive meaningful customer reactions.
The addition of NewVoiceMedia’s pure-play cloud center capabilities to Vonage’s existing UCaaS and CPaaS portfolio presents the company with an opportunity to provide end to end customer service for customers and existing employees. The combined market is expected to grow by 60% by 2022 to about $80 billion.
According to information included in the announcement, NewVoiceMedia already has over 700 enterprise level and mid-market clients and is among the largest pure-play cloud contact centers in the world today. Some analysts estimate that the current market for contact center business could be as high as $9 billion.
Previously, Vonage had been partnering with Salt Lake City based InContact, Inc. for its cloud based contact center needs, but the new acquisition of NewVoiceMedia will allow Vonage to move those services inhouse.
NewVoiceMedia has a strong partnership with Salesforce.com and a vast existing global infrastructure that is capable of shouldering large deployments. Notable existing clients include Parcelforce, Truphone, Siemens, PaySafe and MobileIron. Previous client successes won the company a spot on the Forbes Cloud 100 list in 2017.
NewVoiceMedia is based in the UK and operates in over 120 countries worldwide. It was founded in 2000 by Ashley Unitt and Richard Pickering. In the period since its founding, the company has secured over $140 million in funding from Silicon Valley investors, making it one of the most successful UK-based startups to date. Currently, NewVoiceMedia employs over 400 people and has offices in Europe, Australia, and the United States.
