Zoom buys Five9 for $14.7 billion to “deliver even more happiness”

Videoconferencing platform Zoom is acquiring cloud contact center software company Five9 for $14.7 billion, the company announced.

“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 CEO Eric Yuan said in the announcement. He added that the deal will add more business clients to Zoom’s customer base, and that Five9 is “complementary” to its Zoom Phone cloud system.

Under the terms of the deal, Five9 will become an operating unit of Zoom, and CEO Rowan Trollope will become a president at the company reporting to Yuan. In 2020, Five9’s full-year revenue was up 33 percent year over year to $435 million.

Five9 is Zoom’s first billion-dollar acquisition, and it comes at a time when the company is looking to try to continue the momentum it has gained during the coronavirus pandemic, as people have been working and schooling remotely during lockdowns. Now, many are heading back to offices at least part of the time. “The trend towards a hybrid workforce has accelerated over the last year, advancing contact centers’ shift to the cloud and increasing demand by customers for customized and personalized experiences,” Yuan said in a separate blog post about the deal.

Zoom’s stock price has more than tripled since pandemic lockdowns started last year, but that growth has started to slow slightly. Its revenue rose 326 percent in 2020, but in the first quarter of 2021, Zoom reported growth of about 191 percent to $956 million.