Deal to Buy Unify from Atos Seals New Direction for Mitel, CEO Explains

Mitel president and CEO Tarun Loomba can’t share too much about the exclusive, ongoing negotiations the company has with France-based Atos to buy its Unify portfolio.

What he can do is explain what “exclusive” means.

Mitel’s Tarun Loomba

“This proposed transaction is no different from any other M&A transaction that Mitel has done. In this case, because Atos is a French publicly traded company, the process and the terminology are a bit different,” Loomba said at a press conference on Wednesday. “But the end result is exactly the same.”

That result, according to Mitel spokespersons, means that Unify’s portfolio, partners and talent would “significantly expand Mitel’s scale and offerings.”

Earlier this week Mitel announced the pending deal.

Atos is a multinational information technology service and consulting company that specializes in everything from unified communications to cybersecurity. The company’s Unify portfolio will bring voice platforms, collaboration and contact center products to Mitel. Unify would also deliver its managed services business. This will allow Mitel to help enterprise organizations digitally transform their communications environment.

The transaction should close in the second half of this year.

The Takeaway

Techaisle’s Anurag Agrawal

Anurag Agrawal, founder and chief global analyst at Techaisle, posted on LinkedIn that there were potentially six key outcomes surrounding the upcoming Mitel and Unify deal.

1. Continued focus on on-premises modernization with complementary RingCentral partnerships.
2. Widened customer base: SMB, core midmarket, upper midmarket, enterprise and geographies.
3. Services-led consultative opportunity for the enterprise segment.
4. Potential to replace and refresh installed devices with those from Mitel.
5. Doubling down on offering customer choice and flexibility.

Finally, Mitel is “re-energized,” Agrawal wrote.

Mitel’s CEO discussed some of these points during the press conference. See the slideshow above for Loomba’s remarks.