Unisys Adds Managed UCaaS with $153 Million Unify Square Acquisition

Unisys has acquired Unify Square, a provider of managed Microsoft Teams, Zoom and other unified communications (UC) and collaboration services. The $153 million cash deal, announced Thursday, is Unisys’ first major acquisition in more than a decade.

But Unisys has signaled the deal won’t be its last. Chairman and CEO Peter Altabef has said that Unisys is seeking inorganic growth to build on its realigned business structure. Altabef said that will be through acquisitions. Unisys improved its balance sheet last year by selling its government services business to SAIC for $1.2 billion.

Unisys, which primarily provides IT consulting and managed services, saw its $2 billion in revenue last year decline 10%. During its 2021 investor event, Unisys outlined a three-year growth plan with a goal of increasing revenue by offering new solution sets. The company also formed new segments: Digital Workplace Services (DWS), Cloud and Infrastructure (C&I) and Clear Path Forward (CPF). Unify Square will fall under the DWS business, where Altabef sees potential for fast growth.

During Unisys’ Q1 2021 earnings call on May 6, Altabef said the company sees accelerated growth in its DWS segment. Unisys will achieve that through “expansion and enhancement of our offering portfolio, and shifting to experience based solutions,” Altabef said. “We expect the pipeline for DWS to increase markedly over the course of the year.”

The acquisition of Unify Square is poised to give Unisys’ DWS business a quick lift, with its UCaaS business.

Unisys’ Peter Altabef

“The UCaaS market, in which Unify Square operates, is expected to be among the fastest-growing segments of the digital workplace services market,” according to a statement by Altabef. “Unify Square’s capabilities will enable Unisys to deliver higher-value solutions to its clients that enhance their productivity and employee satisfaction.”

‘We’re All Moving In’

Unify Square will continue to operate at its headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. CEO John Case and chief product marketing officer Scott Gode will remain with the company.

“We’re all moving in,” Case told Channel Futures.

The company will rebranded as Unified Square, a Unisys Company.

Unify Square’s John Case

“We’ll work with Unisys as a channel with their salesforce and with their partner network as well,” he said.

Case added that Unisys has a strong digital workplace service offering.

“[But] they aren’t directly in the UC space,” he said. “They will add our experience management, UC management and collaboration management into their digital workplace. There are a lot of interesting complementary services.”

Unify Square, formed in 2008 by former Microsoft employees, started out helping enterprises manage their Lync for Business networks. That offering, later renamed Skype for Business, has morphed into the current Microsoft Teams communications and collaboration offering.

Case said Unify Square manages 6 million users, mostly with Microsoft Teams, though last year it added a Zoom practice. Unify Square also has partnerships with Slack and Workplace by Facebook.

“Unisys wants us to look at other platforms to add over time,” Case said. “We haven’t committed anything together yet but that is definitely something we will do.”