[January 30, 2013]

Polycom Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire Sentri, Inc. to Expand Portfolio of Advanced Services

Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C), today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Sentri, Inc., a leading provider of advanced services with expertise in Microsoft (News - Alert) technologies (such as Microsoft® Lync™, SharePoint and Office 365), UC&C, video collaboration, cloud services and networking. Sentri's deep expertise integrating Microsoft Lync with Polycom (News - Alert) solutions is a key element of the acquisition, as Polycom has a portfolio of more than 40 video and voice products that interoperate with Lync, and the majority of customers choose Polycom and Microsoft over other vendors for a complete UC&C solution.

Sentri gives Polycom and its partners new opportunities to better serve customer needs with the ability to deliver advanced services with an emphasis on multi-vendor UC solutions that can encompass video, voice, data and networking. Advanced services offerings include consulting, design, deployment, and maintenance services for complex UC&C environments. The acquisition of Sentri is expected to complement current partner capabilities and create new revenue, expertise and joint go-to-market opportunities, through an expanded UC&C expertise practice.

"Sentri provides Polycom and our partners with needed advanced services capabilities to consult, design and implement UC&C solutions, and Sentri's expertise in providing specific Microsoft Lync services is a key skill-set as Lync adoption continues to increase," said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, President of Products and Services, Polycom. "Delivering a robust services portfolio provides Polycom and our partners with the opportunity to not only grow revenues, but also to increase the strategic value we bring to customers by serving as trusted advisors to help them solve their communications objectives as their businesses grow."

The global market for video collaboration advanced services is $1.6 billion in 2013, growing to $1.94 billion in 2016 according to the Gartner Market Trends: Videoconferencing, Worldwide, 2012 report, published August, 2012.

"The acquisition of UC integrator and managed services provider Sentri is a wise move for Polycom," said Ira M. Weinstein, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse (News - Alert) Research. "As enterprises seek to expand their video and UC footprint, they will need support from qualified partners with real-world experience installing and managing Microsoft Lync deployments. By adding Sentri's capabilities to its service organization, Polycom can empwer its channel partners with the skills they need to plan, sell, and support joint Microsoft and Polycom installations. This is both a differentiator for Polycom and a value-add for its partners and end-user customers."

Polycom plans to also set up a Services Center of Excellence, which will provide Polycom and partners in North America with the opportunity to benefit from the skill-set and expertise of the Sentri advanced services team. As part of the Services Center of Excellence, Polycom plans to develop training and certification programs with channels organization to be rolled out in the second half of 2013.

Sentri has experience in all areas of UC&C and, in addition to Microsoft and Polycom expertise, service professionals are skilled on various other vendor solutions in the areas of networking, VoIP and security. Sentri is Gold certified by Microsoft in communications, messaging, portals and collaboration, and desktop technology; Microsoft Premier Support for Lync^TM Partners (PSLP) certified; and has two Microsoft Certified Master engineers. Sentri has been recognized as a leading partner by Microsoft the last several years, including overall East Region Partner of the Year (2012), Lync Partner of the Year for New York Metro region (2011), and Northeast Partner of the Year for three years running.

Sentri leadership will report into Navin Mehta, SVP, Polycom Global Services, as well as to North America sales leadership, and will work closely with the North America partner teams. Sentri will continue to offer services to their existing customer-base, and expand to Polycom customers after the acquisition closes.

This transaction, which is valued at less than $10 million, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013.

A Holistic Approach to Services to Drive Video Ubiquity

Polycom's Global Services organization and its partners offer a full range of video collaboration services to maximize customers' ROI throughout the solution lifecycle, covering implementation and integration of multi-vendor UC platforms such as Microsoft Lync and IBM (News - Alert) Sametime®, maintenance and operations management.

About Polycom

Polycom is the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions for voice and video collaboration, trusted by more than 415,000 customers around the world. Polycom solutions are powered by the Polycom^® RealPresence^® Platform, comprehensive software infrastructure and rich APIs that interoperate with the broadest set of communication, business, mobile and cloud applications and devices to deliver secure face-to-face video collaboration in any environment. Polycom and its ecosystem of over 7,000 partners provide truly unified communications solutions that deliver the best user experience, highest multi-vendor interoperability, and lowest TCO. Visit www.polycom.com or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to learn how we're pushing the greatness of human collaboration forward.

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the Company's expectation that the acquisition will close and will close in the first quarter of 2013 and that the acquisition will complement current partner capabilities and create new revenue, expertise and joint go-to-market opportunities. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including risks related to (1) the parties satisfying the conditions to closing, (2) Polycom's ability to successfully close without management disruption and other impact on its ongoing operations, (3) Polycom's ability to compete successfully in a highly competitive and rapidly changing marketplace, and (4) other factors affecting the operation of the business, as well as those risks and uncertainties included under the caption "Risk Factors" in Polycom's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2012, and in other reports filed by Polycom with the SEC (News - Alert). Polycom disclaims any intent or obligations to update these forward-looking statements.

© 2013 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved. POLYCOM®, the Polycom logo, and the names and marks associated with Polycom's products are trademarks and/or service marks of Polycom, Inc. and are registered and/or common law marks in the United States and various other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]