Mitel You're Up -- What's Your Next Move?Mitel You're Up -- What's Your Next Move?

Following a one on one with CEO Rich McBee, I have some ideas on what sorts of companies Mitel would and wouldn't be interested in acquiring.

Sit down with Mitel CEO Rich McBee for more than five minutes and you'll get a pretty clear understanding of his strategy for the company.

His thesis, and I most wholeheartedly agree with it, is that the unified communications industry needs a strong third vendor to compete with the two front-runners, Cisco and Microsoft. His strategy is to roll up industry players into a larger solution provider -- meaning, Mitel -- and turn a two-horse race into one with three contenders.

Rich McBee, Mitel

Over the last half-dozen years or so, McBee has made a few strides to close the gap -- namely with the acquisitions of Inter-Tel and Aastra Technologies. But, he came out the loser when chasing a couple of larger companies that would have fit into this "roll-up" strategy -- ShoreTel said "thanks, but no thanks" to Mitel's acquisition bid of two years ago, and private equity firm Siris Capital Group swooped in at the 11th hour and grabbed Polycom before Mitel could close on its acquisition. So now the big question for McBee is where to look next?

I had the chance last week to sit down with McBee at Mitel's analyst and consultant conference in Dallas, home of other famous wheelers and dealers such as the fictional J.R. Ewing, of the long-running '80s TV drama Dallas, and Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks' owner and Shark Tank regular. In my one on one, I gained a clearer understanding of what sorts of companies McBee might be interested in purchasing and about which ones he'd say, "and for that reason, I'm out."

Here are the UC submarkets I believe are most likely to catch McBee's eye.

Mitel could go after companies in a variety of technology segments adjacent to UC, but based on my conversation with McBee I would say the following are definitively out:

One final point on McBee's strategy is that he will not overpay for any company. When he looks at an acquisition, he sets a number and will walk away if the target company is looking for more than that. Passing on Polycom and letting it be purchased by Siris is a good example of this. Given the disruption in the space, I suspect McBee will see many good deals come Mitel's way over the next year or two.

McBee must carefully balance the need to move fast and capture market share with the need to be financially responsible and do what's best for shareholders. It's certainly not an easy task but, as they say, that's why he gets paid the big bucks.

McBee, what's your next move? You have an industry waiting to see.

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