It’s that time of the week when we round up the latest news emerging from the unified comms and collaboration industry.
Hot off the presses is the news that Five9’s shareholders have rejected Zoom’s multi-billion dollar bid for the company. Meanwhile, Google introduced a contact centre solution built on Chrome, and 8x8 CEO Dave Sipes spoke with UC Today’s Tom Wright about its global expansion and hitting 100,000 Teams seats.
Zoom’s Five9 Bid Denied
The video conferencing giant’s journey to acquire the cloud contact centre specialist for $14.7bn has ended unceremoniously. The writing was on the wall last week when Five9’s shareholders were advised to reject the takeover due to the decline in Zoom’s share price since the bid was announced in July.
“While we were excited about the benefits this transaction would bring to both Zoom and Five9 stakeholders, including the long-term potential for both sets of shareholders, financial discipline is foundational to our strategy,” stated Zoom CEO Eric Yuan.
“The contact centre market remains a strategic priority for Zoom, and we are confident in our ability to capture its growth potential”
Operator Connect Gains New Carriers
Microsoft Operator Connect added nine new carriers as the service became generally available.
AT&T, Colt, Gamma, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Optus, Singtel, Telefonica Global, Telia, and Telstra International join as launch partners – taking the total carriers to 21.
The service is billed as the third option for voice in Teams, alongside Direct Routing and Teams Calling Plans. It allows businesses to plug in services from certified carriers with less of the complexity that comes with Direct Routing.
Google Brings CC Solution to Chrome
The internet giant revealed a new contact centre solution built on its Chrome operating system (OSS), which was devised in conjunction with 8×8, Cisco, Edify, Five9, Genesys, RingCentral and Vonage.
Thomas Riedl, Director of Product for Enterprise and Education at Google, stated:
“These solution providers have optimized their products for Chrome OS working closely with our partner engineering team and are driving innovation within the contact centre industry”
“We are excited about the improvements we’re bringing to our contact centre customers in collaboration with Chrome Enterprise Recommended partners.”
Microsoft's Talking Points from Enterprise Connect
Hybrid working was the topic of conversation at this year Enterprise Connect.
