Plantronics, a leader in headsets, has recently acquired Polycom, a leader in personal and group collaboration. Immediate opportunities in audio technologies and voice devices result from the synergies between these two companies. Plantronics will become a leading vendor in the communications endpoint business. With very little product overlap, Polycom assets make this deal a solid market expansion that allows Plantronics to extend its footprint beyond its mature headsets business. At the same time, the two companies’ core technologies are complimentary which is where the beauty of this acquisition lies.¹

 “Plantronics and Polycom have both been on the forefront of audio and collaboration innovation for over 55 and 25 years respectively and are both focused on growth in similar complementary paths in the UC market,” says Nick Tidd, VP of Global Partner Organization for Polycom. “Plantronics has been a leader in headsets and has started segueing into the desk phone arena; we are a leader in personal and group collaboration with a strong global enterprise go-to-market capability and services franchise.”

“Both companies have been moving toward complementary cloud applications and services, including analytics, management, and interoperability,” continues Tidd. “Both companies serve many of the same distribution and reseller customers through common routes-to-market. And from a strategic standpoint, both companies are aligned in believing in the power of the open ecosystems for both voice and video solutions.”

Polycom has chosen a clear device-centric focus and has been diligently building a large ecosystem of cloud partners including Microsoft, Zoom, BlueJeans, and others. Plantronics benefits from these existing partnerships and can work to broaden the ecosystem.²

While Polycom has been the leading IP desktop phone brand deployed within the Microsoft ecosystem, Plantronics has shipped approximately 8 to 9 million headset tops within the Microsoft Lync/Skype for Business, and now Teams, environments. Plantronics’ acquisition of Polycom will certainly grant the professional headset leader a stronger overall endpoints position within the Microsoft ecosystem, with a wide array of Microsoft-qualified and -certified endpoints.³

“We look forward to the new market opportunities the Plantronics acquisition of Polycom brings to IVCi,” says Cliff Frankenberger, IVCi’s VP of Strategic Partnerships. “IVCi has been a Polycom value-added reseller for over 20-years and will continue to provide best-of-breed collaboration solutions and integrated services around the entire Polycom portfolio.  We are optimistic that after this deal is finalized and the organizations are combined, there will be no change to the focus of developing innovative products and solutions that tightly integrate into all of Polycom’s existing ecosystem partner relationships. This way, we can continue to add value to our customers that want investment protection and a simplified workflow without having to rip and replace any existing collaboration investments.”

For more information on collaboration solutions designed for your exact needs and budget, contact your local IVCi sales representative at 800-224-7083.

^1,2 Plantronics’ Acquisition of Polycom is Equal Parts Opportunity and Challenge, Digital Transformation, Frost & Sullivan, March 29, 2018

³ Why Plantronics’ Polycom Acquisition Is a Great Move, No Jitter, March 28, 2018