Polycom is being acquired by Siris Capital Group -- a private equity firm -- for $2.0 billion in cash, the two companies confirmed today. The buyout means Polycom is abandoning a deal to sell itself to Mitel Networks Corp.
Polycom's sale to Siris Capital underscores multiple trends in the IT market. For starters, the corporate video conferencing and teleconferencing markets have been hit hard as customers embrace "good enough" free solutions like Skype and video cameras that are now built into PCs, notebooks, tablets and smartphones.
Amid multiple IT industry inflection points, several other network- and collaboration-centric businesses could be on the block, including Avaya.
Meanwhile, Private Equity firms are snapping up technology companies that are caught in technology inflection points. Many of the PE deals involve MSP-focused software companies that are growing -- but perhaps not quite quickly enough to pursue IPOs at this point.
