The net cash cost to Mitel for the acquisition of prairieFyre is approximately $20 million. The deal is expected to be accretive in the first year. prairieFyre is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that has supplied Mitel with its existing contact centre solution. The acquisition is expected to further strengthen Mitel's position in the growing contact centre market, estimated at over $3B annually.
The acquisition coincides with the increasing influence of customer facing contact centre applications as a revenue engine for many organizations and a key factor in building and maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty. Additionally, the acquisition provides Mitel a cornerstone development platform to address increasing demand for cloud-based contact centre solutions, and creates strong pull-through opportunities for associated sales of Mitel's core IP telephony and UC solutions.
"Mitel's strategy centres on delivering profitable growth to our customers, partners and shareholders. In response to customer demand, many of our IT resellers have started building out specialized contact center practices and are asking for a solution tightly integrated and aligned with Mitel's product development and roadmaps," said Richard McBee, president and CEO of Mitel. "We believe the highly integrated nature of our existing OEM relationship with prairieFyre prior to the acquisition makes this a low risk, high reward and compelling opportunity to immediately capitalize on market demand, expand revenue and margins, and positions Mitel for ongoing growth."
The contact centre group will continue to be led by prairieFyre CEO Chris Courneya in his new role as vice president and general manager, Mitel Contact Centres.
"The challenging economic climate during the last few years has dramatically heightened the need for business solutions that drive hard ROI and strengthen customer interaction. Contact centres facilitate and create a natural connection point for customer engagement, sales and support, positioning our applications as critical enablers for customer purchasing decisions," said Mr. Courneya. "The integration of prairieFyre into Mitel at this point in the market gives both organizations the scale and skills to more effectively meet this demand, and grow our contact centre business."