Mitel to buy ShoreTel
Mitel is at it again! On July 27, Mitel announced it was purchasing ShoreTel in an all cash transaction. This follows the announcement on May 11th that Mitel signed a Memorandum of Understanding to transfer assets and support obligations, including existing inventory, from Toshiba.
Mitel is based in Canada (Ottawa) and has annual revenues of about $850 million.
The premise PBX market continues to shrink and as the Cloud telephony business ramps up, there was not enough runway for the likes of Shoretel and Toshiba to make the transition.
Combining the two companies catapults Mitel to number two in the Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) market, according to the company.
With the stroke of a pen, Mitel now has almost doubled its UCaaS revenue to $263 million, and there will be other efficiencies achieved by combining the two companies with similar markets.
“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,” Mitel CEO Rich McBee said in a statement.
$1.3 Bil in Revenue: The combined companies will have approximately $1.3 Billion in annual revenue. In addition when combined will have 3200 channel partners and 4200 employees worldwide.
Financial highlights of the transaction include:
- Combined sales of $1.3 billion*
- Increases Mitel’s total recurring revenue to 39% of total revenue*
- More than doubles Mitel’s UCaaS revenue to $263 million*
- Significant synergy opportunity targeted at $60M in annual run rate spend expected to be achieved over two years
The deal is still subject to regulatory and shareholder review before it can close.
The combined company will be headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, and will operate as Mitel. Rich McBee, Mitel’s Chief Executive Officer, will lead the combined organization. Steve Spooner, Mitel’s Chief Financial Officer, will also continue in that role.