Vonage Completes $130M Vocalocity Acquisition

By Brian Anderson, TMCnet Contributing Writer

Vonage, a cloud-based communications services provider, has completed the acquisition of Vocalocity (News - Alert), a SaaS-based communications provider for small and medium businesses (SMBs). The acquisition folds Vocalocity into Vonage, and will service SMBs under a new department, dubbed Vonage Business Solutions.

Now, Vonage (News - Alert) can offer call analytics, conference calling, call transfer, virtual receptionist, extension dialing, and many other new options for SMBs that they were unable to provide before.

"Vocalocity's comprehensive product suite and scalable platform, together with Vonage's brand, scale and mobile technology, position us for rapid growth in the small and medium business communications market," said Marc Lefar (News - Alert), Vonage chief executive officer, in a statement.

The $130 million deal, with a little over 80 percent of it to be paid in cash, plans to expand Vocalocity’s customer referral program while continuing to service existing customers and prospects.

"Everyone at Vocalocity is excited to join Vonage,” Wain Kellum, Vocalocity CEO and now president of Vonage Business Solutions, said in a statement. “The company's strong leadership and history of innovation are a perfect fit for our business, and will help us to rapidly expand our customer base."

The news comes shortly after Vonage announced a new feature for its mobile devices which allows users to leave a video message instead of a traditional voicemail when a phone call goes unanswered. According to Vonage, they are the first communications application to provide such an option for its customers.

Vocalocity is a provider in the SMB hosted VoIP market. During the first half of 2013, Vocalocity reported revenue of $28 million and growing, suggesting an annual run rate of greater than $56 million. First half 2013 revenues were 39 percent higher than the same period in the prior year. Vocalocity was EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) and free cash flow positive during this period, and ended the second quarter with 21,000 customers.

Edited by Blaise McNamee

(source: http://business-voip-providers.tmcnet.com/articles/361058-vonage-completes-130m-vocalocity-acquisition.htm)