Jabra Parent Completes Altia Systems Acquisition

Jabra parent company GN Audio has completed its $125 million acquisition of Altia Systems, allowing GN to expand into plug-and-play audiovisual communications products and services.

GN said it already commands a “strong position” in UC with the Jabra Evolve line of headphones, and leadership in speakerphones for small meeting rooms and personal use with the Jabra Speak line of products.

Jabra’s Ian Scott

Ian Scott, Jabra’s vice president of sales operations, tells Channel Partners the opportunity within the huddle rooms market is “growing significantly,” and this acquisition will allow Jabra partners to combine “world-class sound with video to provide customers with the best UC solutions available for meeting rooms.”

“Jabra already leads the UC sound-for-huddle rooms market with its Speak series (more than 3 millions sold),” he said. “By adding high-tech video partners, partners will no longer have to look to competitive systems to fulfill the demand from businesses.”

Altia’s video technology, coupled with Jabra’s expertise in sound, will enable partners to deliver the “most collaborative conference call technology on the market,” integrating with new UC functionalities for platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, Scott said.

“The combination of UC conference solutions with 180-degree video conferencing will be unique,” he said. “Partners will be able to help drive business productivity and reduce business cost by offering a conference-call experience that will be just as good as being there, thereby keeping installation and travel costs down.”

Altia’s PanaCast systems and Intelligent Vision artificial intelligence (AI) software products are used by more than 1,600 companies globally, including more than 200 universities, for video collaboration, education, augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR), live broadcasting and machine learning for autonomous systems.

“Altia Partners will be welcomed as Jabra partners,” Scott said. “From here, we are taking steps to develop a plan that outlines how we can maximize the benefits that our partners and their customers receive as a result of the acquisition. All of the necessary steps in consolidating the workings of the two companies will begin to take place. Further information can be shared at a later date, but we expect to have a good plan within the year.”

“Combining PanaCast’s immersive, intelligent video with GN Audio’s intelligent audio solutions will enable us to deliver a whole new class of collaboration products for our customers,” said Aurangzeb Khan, Altia’s president and CEO. “PanaCast’s solutions enable companies to improve meeting participants’ experience, automate workflows, and enhance business efficiency and real estate utilization with data lakes of valid information.”