Content, Channel markets, Mergers and Acquisitions, Channel investors, IT management

Cloud Unified Communications Acquisition: LogMeIn Buys Jive

The consolidation continues in the unified communications sector, where LogMeIn has acquired Jive Communications for $342 million in cash and up to $15 million in future considerations. LogMeIn will tuck the acquired asset into its GoToMeeting, OpenVoice, and join.me conferencing systems unit.

Jive Communications, which launched in 2006, positions itself as a fast-growing player in the Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) space with 20,000 customers around the world. The business has offices in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America.

LogMeIn will add Jive’s suite of services to its collaboration portfolio, which already serves 25 million users, seven million meetings, and more than 900 million conferencing minutes each month, the company says.

John Pope, Jive’s CEO, is expected to continue running the Jive Communications business, reporting directly to LogMeIn President and CEO Bill Wagner. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018 pending regulatory approvals.

UCaaS M&A Continues

The unified communications sector has triggered plenty of M&A deals and market moves in recent months. Examples include Intermedia acquire AnyMeeting, along with Ring Central putting itself up for sale.

More deals will likely arrive as enterprise companies switch from legacy phone services to VoIP as a service. That’s creating an opportunity for Jive and rivals like UberConference, WebEx, and Zoom.