8×8 acquires Fuze to expand enterprise customer base and global presence

8×8 announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Fuze for approximately $250 million in stock and cash.

The acquisition will accelerate 8×8 XCaaS (eXperience Communications as a Service) innovation and expand 8×8’s enterprise customer base and global presence. The transaction is expected to close during 8×8’s fourth fiscal quarter, subject to the satisfaction of regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

“The migration to cloud-based communications and engagement is accelerating as organizations worldwide shift to hybrid work models, creating a multi-billion dollar opportunity,” said Dave Sipes, CEO at 8×8. “Our XCaaS strategy is defining and shaping the future of the cloud communications industry as we drive innovation to help our customers meet their changing business requirements. The acquisition of Fuze expands our operational scale and extends our global presence as we meet enterprise demand for our XCaaS integrated UCaaS and CCaaS solution.”

Fuze has global operations dedicated to a seamless customer experience between unified communications and contact center. Acquiring Fuze will further support innovation and development of 8×8 XCaaS, a single-vendor, integrated Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), and Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) solution.

“Enterprise customers recognize the importance of an integrated UCaaS and CCaaS solution. 8×8’s industry-leading XCaaS solution for an integrated employee and customer experience enables customers to advance their cloud transformation efforts as they move off legacy on-premises systems,” said Brian Day, CEO of Fuze. “Combining resources and expertise with 8×8 is a natural fit, bringing with it needed scale and accelerating the pace of product innovation with differentiated solutions that capitalize on this massive opportunity, all of which will serve to benefit our enterprise customer base.”

The acquisition will deliver strong value to customers, employees, partners, and stakeholders by:

• Accelerating the XCaaS platform advantage with dramatically increased resources for research and development, engineering, and support.
• Expanding the enterprise customer base and global presence, especially in continental Europe.
• Providing significant cross-sell opportunities with 8×8’s omnichannel contact center and CPaaS capabilities to support enterprise customer engagement efforts.

Both 8×8 and Fuze are uniquely recognized in the marketplace. 8×8 was recently named a Leader and Fuze a Visionary in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, Worldwide. This was the tenth consecutive year 8×8 was recognized as a Leader. 8×8 was also named a Challenger in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service for the seventh consecutive year.

Transaction terms and financial impact

• Approximately $250 million in aggregate consideration, subject to certain adjustments, composed of approximately $130 million in cash and $120 million in common stock of 8×8.
• Up to $130.2 million will be used to retire Fuze’s debt and pay for the equity owned by non-accredited stockholders of Fuze.
• 8×8 expects to file a resale registration statement for the shares to be issued in connection with the transaction after the closing.

8×8 expects to remain non-GAAP profitable after the transaction closes.