With the purchase of the specialist for call centers operated in the cloud, Zoom wants to expand its business beyond video conferencing. Zoom wants to use its shares, which have risen in the pandemic, as currency to pay the purchase price of $ 14.7 billion.
According to documents on the website of the telecom regulator FCC, a special committee under the leadership of the Department of Justice will answer the question of whether the deal poses risks to the national security of the United States. The government did not go into the exact dangers it suspected.
Zoom himself had pointed out in the previous quarterly report that Five9 had developers and business in Russia and that the deal could therefore be exposed to political risks. The “Wall Street Journal” meanwhile wrote on Tuesday that the investigation was triggered by connections from Zoom to China. Zoom, a US company based in San Jose, California, has development activities in China.
A Zoom spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that all the necessary documents had been submitted to the relevant authorities and that the process was developing as expected. Zoom also assumes that the takeover can be completed in the first half of 2022.
Zoom had moved into a new league with the Corona crisis. The company was originally supposed to provide video conferencing for companies. In the pandemic, however, it was not only used in companies: private individuals also use Zoom for all sorts of occasions – from family reunions to yoga classes.
After leaps in sales of more than 300 percent last year, growth has normalized. Zoom therefore tries to use the tailwind to expand its business. The plan is, among other things, to take over the supply of telephony in companies in addition to video conferences.