Zoom, which took off during the pandemic, buys cloud startup for almost $ 15 billion

Zoom Video Communications has agreed to acquire cloud service provider Five9 for $ 14.7 billion. The deal is slated to close in the first half of 2022, Bloomberg reported.

Under the agreement announced on Sunday, the deal is subject to approval by Zoom shareholders. Once the deal is approved, the cloud services company will become Zoom’s operating unit. Five9 previously participated in testing equipment that Zoom makes.

During 2020, Zoom shares rose in value fivefold, and the company’s market capitalization exceeded $ 100 billion. This increase was driven by a lockdown, when the demand for video calling was necessary for remote work and training, as well as for communication. In 2021, investors have already expressed concern about whether the company will continue to grow as the economy opens and the population is vaccinated against the coronavirus. Service sales in the first quarter grew by 191% compared to the previous quarter. Revenue was $ 956.2 million in the first quarter versus $ 382.2 million in the same period last year. By the end of the year, the company expects sales to grow by 50% due to a slowdown in demand for online video conferencing.

In the first quarter, the company announced improvements to its video conferencing platforms and a $ 100 million venture capital fund. In late June, Zoom announced the purchase of German startup Kites (Karlsruhe Information Technology Solutions), which develops real-time speech translation technology. Zoom intends to integrate Kites technology into its service, and the startup team of 12 research scientists will help the company “improve the productivity and efficiency of meetings by providing Zoom users with multilingual translation capabilities.”