Manufacturers and providers of video conferencing solutions are positioned

Xavier Casajoana, CEO of VozTelecom, analyze in this text, published on the Oigaa Meeting service blog, The merger process, Acquisitions and alliances that are taking place in the telepresence and videoconferencing sector.

We are attending since the year 2010 to a veritable M&A race led by leading video conferencing manufacturers, who need to defend their market share against new competitors, as well as its stock market value, not only related to growth indicators and current results, but above all to the positioning of companies in the new videoconferencing market, that is undergoing a profound transformation towards software-based solutions, Available on any device, anywhere, and interoperable with each other, Connecting people and organizations in a standard and cost-effective way.

There are several analysts who predict an increase in videoconferencing business figures higher than 6% annual for the next few years, highlighting that it will be the fastest growing ICT market segment. This market environment will offer great opportunities to both existing companies as well as new players who will take advantage of this growth in demand to provide new solutions and value propositions., with which to scratch quota to the current leaders.

The current position of Polycom and Cisco, Absolute leaders of the video conferencing market until today, It can be threatened by new and innovative companies that have been born or will be born with the transformation of the market, responding to the new and changing needs of users and an evident example of its reaction to possible threats has been the acquisition of Tandberg by Cisco in April of the 2010, as well as Polycom's purchase of HP's telepresence division in June 2011 and most recently from collaboration software company ViVu.

Logitech and Avaya

An example of how other companies in the sector have also been transforming their offer through acquisitions is Logitech., who in January of the 2010 bought the pioneering manufacturer in HD video conferencing, LifeSize, and later the company Mirial, Specialized in videoconferencing software for mobile devices. No wonder then., that behind these movements and market expectations, other manufacturers of communications solutions for companies such as Avaya, are forced to react so as not to be left off the race head, And so it has been, with the purchase in March of this year of the videoconferencing manufacturer Radvision by 230 millions of dollars, taking advantage of Radvision's weakness after losing its main client, culm (for the purchase of Tandberg).

After this rallly of purchases by the main manufacturers, I'm sure that during the next few years 24 Months we will witness a new stage of mergers and acquisitions, protagonizadas esta vez por los operadores y proveedores de servicios, en especial con aquellos que ofrezcan videoconferencia en ‘cloud’, pues serán los pioneros quienes una vez vean aumentado su tamaño por el crecimiento del mercado, estarán en el punto de mira de los principales actores: Yorktel, el tercer proveedor de videoconferencia en Estados Unidos con unas ventas de 100 millions of dollars, acaba de anunciar la compra del proveedor británico First Connections, estableciéndose de este modo de forma inmediata en el mercado Europeo.

Y si las previsiones de crecimiento de mercado de los analistas aciertan, esto es sólo el principio.

Xavier Casajoana

Consejero delegado de VozTelecom

 

 

 

 

 

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