Broadvoice Buys YipTel, Adds to Product Lineup

**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting merger and acquisition news from April and May.**

Broadvoice is accelerating its entry into enterprise communications by scooping up YipTel, a provider of cloud communications services based in Sandy, Utah.

Through the acquisition, Broadvoice gets YipTel’s customer base, which includes midmarket and enterprise organizations. YipTel’s services include hosted VoIP, audio and video conferencing, SMS/MMS automation, contact center, SD-WAN and more.

Financial details of the transaction aren’t being disclosed.

Broadvoice’s Rebecca Rosen

Rebecca Rosen, Broadvoice’s vice president of marketing, tells Channel Partners the merger doesn’t impact the products channel partners can offer through their existing agreements.

“That said, we do expect to be expanding our product portfolio,” she said. “Working with YipTel, Broadvoice will expand its b-hive features to incorporate the current YipTel features into its portfolio. This includes YipTel Reach, an inbound and outbound text automation platform. Additionally, Broadvoice intends on incorporating the YipTel product road map into its own road map for future development, specifically for omnichannel contact-center capabilities.

YipTel focuses on the health-care vertical with its YipTel TeleHealth offering. Broadvoice also has a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant offering and is launching programs targeting government, education and nonprofit verticals later this month, Rosen said. The vertical practice is an ongoing focus and will be led by YipTel CEO Robert Brown.

Additionally, Broadvoice will leverage YipTel’s contact-center expertise to address the needs of today’s call-center managers, she said.

“YipTel partners will benefit through expanded customer-facing solutions, and will be able to take advantage of Broadvoice’s nationwide resources and increased partner investment while Broadvoice partners will benefit from YipTel’s enterprise and vertical expertise,” Rosen said. “As our current partners know, partnership with Broadvoice opens the door for partners to leverage the strengths, competencies and expertise of a nationwide team of channel managers, partner sales managers and solutions architects. The synergy created through these partnerships and the integration of Broadvoice and YipTel will accelerate our partners’ growth into more opportunities across broader geographies and additional market segments.”

For now, both companies’ partner programs will continue to operate fully in parallel to provide partners with the “highest level of support for their businesses,” she said. Partners interested in selling Broadvoice services will need to do so through one of Broadvoice’s master-agency relationships or independently with Broadvoice. Likewise, the reverse is true of Broadvoice partners interested in selling YipTel services.

“Broadvoice plans to migrate YipTel partners to the Broadvoice channel program over time and the standard agreements under which all Broadvoice partners conduct business today,” Rosen said. “Prior to transitioning to the Broadvoice agreement, partners with a YipTel agreement may operate under the terms of their valid agreement.”

Through the end of the year, Broadvoice plans to run both companies and brands separately. YipTel’s leadership, including Brown, will continue in senior management roles.

“YipTel has a very long history of serving customers with integrity,” Brown said. “Not just any company would be a good fit to acquire our organization. Our leadership team has come to know the Broadvoice executives and culture well and we believe that they have the best interests of our employees, customers and partners in mind. We look forward to growing the business together.”