Zoom is buying a cloud call center company for $14.7 billion

After experiencing enormous growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom has made its first major acquisition by purchasing cloud contact center company Five9 for $14.7 billion, it announced. The move will allow Zoom to expand into call center technology worth up to $24 billion, diversifying its products once employees start returning to the office after the pandemic. 

Five9 will become an operating unit of Zoom when the deal is closed, likely in the first half of 2022. “We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our platform and the addition of Five9 is a natural fit that will deliver even more… value to our customers,” Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said in a statement.

Five9 is a 20-year-old firm with 2,000 customers worldwide, including SalesForce and Under Armour, and processes over 7 billion minutes of calls annually. Zoom notes that it was already a “long-term” customer of Five9 and said the partnership will give Five9’s business clients access to Zoom products like the multi-platform Zoom Phone app.

The acquisition won’t have much of an impact on consumers, as Five9 is largely a business-to-business company. However, Zoom’s recent growth has been fueled in part by employees needing to work and communicate from home due to the pandemic. Once that crisis eases, Five9’s contact center business will provide another revenue stream.

While most of its products are aimed at businesses, Zoom has also embraced the consumer side of things. Last year, the company released a new category of products called Zoom for Home, with both software and a line of hardware devices. While those products are aimed at employees working from home, they can also be used by consumers looking for a reliable video calling system.