LogMeIn Goes To Jive for UCaaSLogMeIn Goes To Jive for UCaaS
Aims to grow its presence in enterprise communications and collaboration, push into SME and larger enterprises.
February 8, 2018
LogMeIn, largely known for its Web conferencing and meeting services, today announced its intent to acquire Jive Communications as a means of accelerating its "growth and presence" in the enterprise communications and collaboration market, as CEO Bill Wagner stated during a briefing about the acquisition.
The $342 million cash deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018.
LogMeIn, which offers the popular GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar services, among others, has been watching industry evolutions and building a strategy around the convergence of messaging, meeting, and telephony. Rather than slowly building up a converged portfolio on its own, the company decided to "take a bigger step forward" by bringing a UCaaS platform in house, Wagner said.
LogMeIn selected Jive for a number of reasons, including its modern UCaaS platform and technical depth, Wagner said. The company will likely do some "lightweight API integrations" this year, followed by more significant integration at the platform level over time, he added.
The technical synergies aren't what drove LogMeIn's excitement over Jive, however, Wagner said. The opportunity to accelerate growth and presence in the UCaaS market propelled its interest, he said.
Jive has seen a 20% growth, in part at the upper ends of the small-to-medium enterprise segment. It does well at just below the 1,000-employee market, which is "right in that sweet spot," Wagner said. But it can also sell to larger enterprises, particularly with its voice services, he added.
Additionally, the LogMeIn and Jive go-to-market strategies mesh perfectly, Wagner said. And, as was the case with the 2015 acquisition of password management software provider LastPass, LogMeIn believes it can use its sales and marketing engine to accelerate Jive's market presence in a meaningful way, he added. "We wouldn't be doing the acquisition otherwise."
LogMeIn expects Jive CEO John Pope to remain on board to run the UCaaS business post acquisition, reporting into Wagner. Branding is yet to be determine, said Wagner, noting that that's something the company will work on between now and closing.
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