Polycom has announced its intentions to acquire VoIP business Obihai Technology, with the communications business using Obihai's technical expertise to develop better technologies for service providers and customers.
Obihai is best known for developing both the hardware and software to support VoIP endpoints. Polycom wants to use Obihai's products and services to add more cloud-based capabilities and Analog Terminal Adapter solutions to its portfolio, ensuring it appeals to a wider bank of customers and service partners.
"The strategic acquisition of the Obihai team and its software platform allows Polycom to surge forward on our strategy to deliver the best and most human-to-human experience in our audio and video solutions," said Mary McDowell, Polycom CEO.
"Looking ahead to 2018 and beyond, the addition of Obihai will immediately open new markets and revenue opportunities for Polycom. The combined development team will enable Polycom to bring our great products to customers faster."
Polycom will also use Obihai's partner network to distribute its products into new territories when the deal closes in the next few months. It will also be able to tag Obihai's products and services onto its own partner offerings, making for an attractive package of VoIP-led solutions.
"Polycom is a proven leader for delivering products with outstanding audio quality and universal interoperability in the open-standard SIP market for VoIP endpoints," Jan Fandrianto, Obihai's Founder and CEO said. "When combined with Polycom, Obihai's product and cloud-services engineering expertise will be a powerful advantage for Polycom's partners and their customers in an increasingly competitive market."
Neither company has revealed how many of Obihai's staff will join Polycom, or how the management structure will be organised once the deal closes.
