Mitel Layoffs 2021: Unified Communications Job Cuts After RingCentral Deal -

Mitel has confirmed layoffs, but the unified communications, contact center and business phone system company did not disclosed how many job cuts actually occurred.

The Mitel layoffs surfaced only a few weeks after the company sold certain assets to RingCentral. Around the time of that deal, Mitel also confirmed a CEO change from Mary McDowell to Tarun Loomba. Then, some Mitel layoff details surfaced on ChannelFutures.

Mitel now has roughly 3,972 employees listed on LinkedIn. The big question mark: Will the company benefit from the RingCentral deal -- especially since RingCentral essentially controls Mitel's fate in the Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) cloud market?

RingCentral-Mitel Partnership: Deal Terms

The RingCentral-Mitel deal terms, announced in November 2021, include:

RingCentral becomes Mitel’s exclusive UCaaS partner, basically providing Mitel’s 35 million users with a path to cloud-based unified communications.
RingCentral acquired Mitel’s CloudLink technology — which provides a path from on-premises PBX technology to RingCentral’s Message Video Phone (MVP) cloud platform.
On the flip side, Mitel’s investor group (led by Searchlight Capital Partners) will invest $200 million in RingCentral.
Product enhancements leveraging joint technologies (beginning with Mitel phone and device support for RingCentral MVP) is planned for the first half of 2022.

We'll be watching to see when those product developments debut, and how they perform.

UCaaS Mergers, Acquisitions, And Challenges

Amid the business challenges at Mitel, the overall UCaaS market is performing well and fueling M&A deals. Still, the rising tide hasn't fully lifted all UCaaS boats. Some M&A deals involve UCaaS companies that underwent layoffs (example: 8×8 acquired Fuze). And some UCaaS IPOs (initial public offerings) have been delayed amid tepid investor demand (example: Intermedia).

Although demand for unified voice, video and IP services continues to grow, some market watchers wonder if Microsoft Teams andZoom will ultimately pressure UCaaS rivals.