Perhaps one of the most surprising and disheartening news stories of 2023 was Lifesize filing for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
To prevent short-term disruption for its customers, Lifesize finalised $5 million in financing from its existing lender to ensure liquidity during bankruptcy. It has also filed "First Day" motions with its bankruptcy. This additional financing enabled Lifesize to pay its employees and continue its day-to-day operations.
As a consequence of the bankruptcy, a deal was made with Enghouse Systems, who is now lined up to acquire a host of Lifesize's assets and brands, including Lifesize, Kaptivo, ProScheduler, Serenova, and Telstrat.
Industry experts UC Today spoke to last week identified a strategic trend that Enghouse maintains with its acquisition of Lifesize.
"I think it's interesting that Enghouse has become this collection point for legacy video vendors that have had really innovative technology," commented Irwin Lazar, President at Metrigy. "They acquired the assets of Vidyo a number of years ago. They've used that to build into their contact centre portfolio for things like telehealth and customer engagement by using Vidyo."
Lazar highlighted that Lifesize's longevity as one of the early video conferencing vendors became a double-edged sword — that while being one of the early innovators, the industry boom facilitated by COVID-19 passed them by.
"They kind of missed the revolution that we saw around the pandemic," Lazar added. "They lost out to Zoom, which had a much easier-to-obtain, easier-to-use, more software-centric view of applications. Lifesize, which was more traditionally focused on hardware and high-quality experiences. Lifesize was the first on the market with a 4K video solution a few years ago."
"I mentioned to one of my colleagues that Lifesize had been acquired, and their first response was, 'I didn't know that they were still around.'"
