OTTAWA and SUNNYVALE, CA – Enterprise communications provider Mitel Networks is buying California-based ShoreTel in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $430 million, the companies said Thursday.
Mitel said that the deal will move it to one of the top two players in the UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) market, creating a supplier with the scale and technical capabilities to provide customers with new cloud-based solutions and applications.
The combined company, which will operate as Mitel, will be headquartered in Ottawa and led by Mitel’s CEO Rich McBee. Steve Spooner, Mitel’s chief financial officer, will also continue in that role. Together, the combined company will have approximately 3,200 channel partners, an industry-leading portfolio of communications and collaboration solutions, and approximately 4,200 employees.
“This is a very natural combination that enables us to continue to consolidate the industry and take advantage of cost synergy opportunities while adding new technologies and significant cloud growth to our business,” said McBee, in the news release. “Together, Mitel and ShoreTel will be able to take customers to the cloud faster with full-featured, cloud-based communications and applications.”
“With the announcement today, this concludes our comprehensive review of strategic alternatives by delivering a significant cash premium for our shareholders,” added ShoreTel CEO Don Joos. “Customers are clearly moving to the cloud at a rapid pace. The combination of Mitel and ShoreTel creates a new UCaaS market leader with a differentiated strategy and solution, and a clear migration path so that no customer is left behind or will have to abandon what they already have to cloud-enable their organization.”
The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2017, subject to ShoreTel stockholders having tendered shares representing more than 50% of the outstanding shares of ShoreTel common stock, certain regulatory approvals having been obtained and other customary conditions to the tender offer having been satisfied.
