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Jive acquired in enterprise collaboration software merger
In UC news, Jive is in the midst of being acquired by a private equity firm and is expected to merge with CRM provider Aurea. Plus, UC cloud service provider Fuze gets more money.
Jive Software, an enterprise collaboration software vendor, announced last week it will be acquired by private equity firm ESW Capital LLC for $462 million. With the acquisition, Jive will become part of Aurea Inc., a provider of customer relationship management software in Austin, Texas.
Aurea CEO Scott Brighton said the merger would enable the combined company to meld customer experience and employee and customer engagement.
However, Jim Lundy, an analyst at Aragon Research in Morgan Hill, Calif., wrote in a blog that the merger muddies the future of Jive's products. Jive has two key enterprise collaboration software products: Jive-n, a social intranet, and Jive-x, customer community software.
Jive-x is a natural fit for Aurea's customer relationship management portfolio, but where Jive-n fits in the portfolio is unclear. Enterprise social software has dwindled in popularity in favor of team collaboration software, like Slack, Lundy wrote.
Jive's board of directors unanimously approved the merger agreement. The acquisition is expected to close in June 2017. The deal also highlights ongoing consolidation, mergers and acquisitions in the unified communications and enterprise collaboration software market.
Fuze receives more investment capital
Cloud-based unified communications provider Fuze Inc., based in Cambridge, Mass., received $30 million last week, bringing the vendor's recent financing round to $134 million. The additional capital brings Fuze's total funding to $334 million.
The latest round of money will support product development in Fuze's enterprise customer segment and international expansion in the Asia Pacific and Latin America regions.
Steve Kokinos, executive chairman of Fuze, said the funding reflects the market opportunity for business communication platforms. For large organizations, he said, the move to cloud communications is not a matter of if, but when.
The latest round of funding follows the appointment of Chris Conry as CIO and the announcement of Fuze Connect, a technology integration service that ties together existing line-of-business apps with the Fuze platform.
PanTerra releases UC cloud service
Unified-communications-as-a-service provider PanTerra Networks Inc. has announced Streams, the latest release of its UC cloud service. Streams offers a PBX replacement for real-time communications, secure cloud file sync and sharing, persistent team messaging and other collaboration capabilities.
The new service builds on and replaces PanTerra's previous WorldSmart service with advanced team collaboration features. New UC and team collaboration features include:
- Integrated UC, team messaging and file sharing in a single, customizable service;
- ConnectMe Web Meeting to launch video conferencing or desk sharing from a desktop or mobile device;
- An enhanced admin portal that supports multiple admin levels and localized admin privileges; and
- Support for secure mobile deployments.
All Streams services can be managed by the organization or provided through PanTerra's managed service SentraCloud, which includes optional internet or MPLS connectivity and any associated on-premises phones and networking equipment.
