image courtesy of Getty Images Zoom, a video conferencing company, has agreed to buy a cloud-based call center operator for a multibillion-dollar deal, betting on the future of hybrid working. In a blog post published on Sunday, the company announced the $14.7 billion (£10.7 billion) acquisition of Five9. The transaction, according to Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, will allow consumers to “reimagine the way they do business.” It’s the firm’s biggest takeover, and it happened just as employees were starting to return to work. Investors have been looking for signs of how the company would do when social barriers to vaccination are lifted and more people are immunized. Zoom became a household name almost immediately as a result of the epidemic, which forced an abrupt shift to remote work for many enterprises throughout the world. Zoom has stated that it does not expect growth to continue at the same rate as last year, although business has been good so far. Sales are expected to increase by more than 40% this year, to more than $3.7 billion (£2.66 billion). Sales were up 370 percent in the last three months of 2020 compared to the same time in 2019, reaching $882.5 million, the company reported in March. The acquisition of Five9 signified a shift in strategy for the company, which charges corporations for its remote meeting software and offers limited free use to the general public. Zoom Phone, a cloud-based phone service, and Zoom Rooms, a conference-hosting service, are currently the company’s top priorities. “With this acquisition, we will be able to accelerate Zoom’s growth and play an even bigger role in pushing the digital future, bringing enterprises and their customers closer together,” said Eric Yuan, the company’s founder. More than 2,000 organizations utilize Five9’s call center software, including Under Armour, Lululemon, and Olympus, and the merger is scheduled to close in the first half of 2022 after being authorized by the boards of both companies. “This is a high-priced transaction that appears to be an attempt to expand the Zoom Phone service,” said Mirabaud Securities analyst Neil Campling. “Paying such a high premium for such a non-differentiated offering reeks of attempts to expand into adjacent markets as Zoom fatigue sets in,” he added. The future of hybrid working has been called into question, despite the fact that other digital companies, such as Google and Microsoft, have invested in their video-conferencing offerings during the pandemic. Others, such as global workspace provider IWG, believe that working from home at least part of the time will become the norm, particularly as businesses seek to save money and be more environmentally conscious by reducing office space usage. Working hours are flexible. Calling through video Employment/n
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