Vonage Maintains Momentum with Planned Purchase of iCore

It would be fair to say Vonage is on a spending spree, purchasing Telesphere, Simple Signal and Vocalocity since the fall of 2013, and its next acquisition was announced this week: iCore—a firm with great expertise in the cloud environment. Reportedly, Vonage will purchase iCore for a cool $92 million.

Vonage CEO Alan Masarek noted in a statement that "iCore is an excellent strategic fit and a natural complement to Vonage's rapidly expanding UCaaS business. This acquisition will deepen our penetration at the higher end of the business market and further strengthen our industry leadership.”

The acquisition makes a lot of sense for both sides. iCore leverages the Broadsoft BroadWorks platform, the same technology leveraged by Vonage. And, with acquiring iCore, Vonage is also acquiring its nearly 90,000 customer seats—worth a reported $4,000 per seat—and, the firm also offers Microsoft Lync-as-a-Service solution, which includes an offer for Microsoft Exchange and provides a virtual desktop among other cloud services.

iCore’s aim is to improve workflow by melding cloud services and unified communications to create what it calls an “all in one” experience.

Masarek continued to say, “Our strategy is to serve businesses of any size via a multi-channel distribution approach. With the addition of iCore, Vonage will have what we believe is the largest sales force in the UCaaS market, addressing mid-market and enterprise companies . . . [and] . . . that supports our extensive nationwide network of indirect channel partners.”

This string of UCaaS provider acquisitions sends a clear message to those in the space, fast movers with complete offerings that come at a reasonable rate and exceptional functionality will win the draw. The future forecast is cloudy, and those who migrate early and innovate in the space will certainly separate from the pack. As for Vonage, guess we are in wait and see mode because it is clearly a proactive player in the space.

Edited by Dominick Sorrentino