Yesterday, headset maker Plantronics said it is buying San Jose-based conferencing hardware company Polycom for a monster $2B, to become a “one-stop-shop for business communication gear.”
We get it, it sounds like a snooze fest, but, the video conferencing space isn’t just a bunch of white noise — 43% of workers now work remotely at least once in a while, boosting the conferencing market to a predicted $41B by 2022.
The big dogs are making moves, and the puppies are barkin’ back
Plantronics and Polycom have close to 4k employees apiece, and nearly a century of experience between them — the words spoken by Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the moon were spoken through a Plantronic headset.
Meanwhile, newcomers like Zoom and a host of smaller conferencing startups, like Highfive and G2 Crowd, are head-set on chipping away at their market share (Zoom crossed a $1B valuation last year).
But, some analysts warn of a “bloody consolidation”
The commoditization of video conferencing and high influx of competitors could mean a “market crunch” is coming.
Polycom’s acquisition may be the first domino to set off a chain reaction of larger players buying up their competition in the race to get rich, or get acquired trying.