Zoom buys cloud call center firm Five9 for $14.7 billion

San Jose, CA, USA - Feb 13, 2020: A businessman checks his smartphone in San Jose International Airport with Zoom Video Communications advertisement on the screen in the background. Zoom provides remote conferencing services using cloud computing and has quickly emerged as one of the leading tools to keep business running and student learning.

Zoom is taking advantage of the impressive rise in its stock price in the past year to make its first major acquisition. The popular video conferencing firm, which was valued at about $9 billion at its IPO two years ago, said Sunday evening it has agreed a deal to buy cloud call centre service provider Five9 for about $14.7 billion in an all-stock transaction.

20-year-old Five9 will become an operating unit of Zoom after the deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2022, the two firms said.

The proposed acquisition is Zoom’s latest attempt to expand its offerings. In the past year, the video conferencing software has added several office collaboration products, a cloud phone system, and an all-in-one home communications appliance.

The acquisition of Five9 — which has amassed over 2,000 customers worldwide including Citrix and Under Armour and processes over 7 billion minutes of calls annually — will help Zoom enter the “$24 billion” market for contact centers, the company said.

“We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our platform, and the addition of Five9 is a natural fit that will deliver even more happiness and value to our customers,” said Eric S. Yuan, founder and chief executive of Zoom, in a statement.

MoviePass drops pricing to under $7 per month, if you opt for the annual plan

MoviePass, the subscription service that lets consumers pay a monthly fee to see unlimited movies in theaters across the U.S., is slashing its prices yet again. The company announced today it’s now offering its service for $6.95 per month, down from the current price of $9.95 per month, when customers commit to a one-year subscription plan. That works out to a flat fee of $89.95 annually. The deal is a limited-time promotion, as opposed to a permanent pricing change, but MoviePass didn’t say how long the offer is valid. However, it is open to both new and existing subscribers – the latter who would receive a 25 percent savings on their current subscription if switching over to the annual plan. This is not the first time that MoviePass has dropped its pricing. When the company introduced its $9.95 per month, one-movie-per-day plan this August, down from $15 for 2 movies per month (or more in select markets like L.A. and NYC, and going as high as $50), it saw so many new sign-up...

ASUS VivoBook X202E Windows 8 Touchscreen Laptop Review And Giveaway

It wasn’t very long ago when prices of touchscreen Windows 8 laptops soared beyond $1000. Thankfully, those days are behind us, and portable computers can easily be purchased – touchscreen and all – for under $500. That’s precisely the demographic in which the ASUS VivoBook X202E falls. When compared to a high-end laptop, its specifications might seem modest, but for laptop buyers just looking for a way to browse the web, watch videos, use basic apps, and not spend too much money, something in this budget is perfectly suitable. The question is, of course, how does the ASUS VivoBook X202E compare to others on the market, and is it the one which you should be spending your hard-earned money on? Well, you’re just going to have to keep reading to find out. Best of all, we are giving away an ASUS VivoBook X202E to one lucky winner. Keep reading for your chance to take home this Windows 8 touchscreen laptop! Introducing the ASUS VivoBook X202E Laptop The ASUS VivoBook X202...

How To Upgrade Your PS3 HDD

The living room game console has become a central media hub for many, which can mean large movie downloads. Despite all the controversy surrounding DRM, digital game downloads have finally arrived too – nowadays, you can download premium AAA titles on launch day without having to wait for a piece of plastic to arrive in the mail. And if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, you have gigabytes of new games literally thrown at you every month. On environmental grounds, I couldn’t be happier about the move to digital – but it means local storage needs are growing rapidly. The days of having a slot-in memory cartridge are far gone – a few hundred gigabytes would be modest by today’s standards. Let’s upgrade. Luckily, Sony made it really easy and user-serviceable to upgrade the internal storage drive – unlike Microsoft, who locked it down and demanded you buy first-party approved models only. Upgrading your PS3 drive will not void the warranty. Why Upgrade? I recently bo...

Kiran Upadhyay

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