8x8 opens ANZ support centre, expands through acquisition

8x8 has acquired the privately-held Wavecell, a Singapore-based global Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) provider, for approximately USD $125 million in cash and stock.

The acquisition of Wavecell provides 8x8 with an established technology platform and high-growth revenue business to pursue CPaaS globally and represents a natural expansion of 8x8's cloud business from Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS), Contact Center-as-a-Service (CCaaS), and Video into the CPaaS market.

"8x8 is now the only cloud provider that owns the full, global-scale, cloud-native, technology stack offering voice, video, messaging, and contact centre delivered both as pre-packaged applications and as enterprise-class APIs," says 8x8 CEO Vic Verma.

"We're excited to welcome the Wavecell employees to the 8x8 family. We now have a significant market presence in Asia and expect to continue to expand in the region and globally in order to meet evolving customer requirements.

The company has also opened a Sydney-based support centre to improve regional support for users and partners across Australia and New Zealand.

 "The Sydney support centre follows the recent opening of our Sydney office and enables us to provide world-class technical support from a far more convenient location for our Australian and New Zealand customers and reseller channel partners," says 8x8 Asia Pacific vice president says Brendan Maree.

"At the same time, it will enable us to foster stronger, more dynamic and mutually beneficial relationships with our customer and partner ecosystem.

Wavecell is expected to further accelerate 8x8's growth, expand its international presence, and deepen the company's technology capabilities in cloud communications and brings an R-D centre in Asia to accelerate product innovation and delivery.

"We are delighted to become part of 8x8, one of the world's leading cloud communications platforms. Now is the right time to leverage the global expansion of UCaaS, CCaaS and CPaaS services to better serve our customers' growing demand for communication services and to continually drive greater innovation," says Wavecell CEO and co-founder Olivier Gerhardt.

Under the terms of the agreement, 8x8 acquired Wavecell for a total consideration of approximately US$125 million, which represents a multiple of less than 4x anticipated Wavecell calendar 2019 revenue.

This is comprised of approximately US$69 million in cash and approximately US$56 million in 8x8 common stock, of which approximately US$12 million of common stock is subject to certain vesting restrictions over a three-year period.

The purchase price is subject to customary adjustments as well as holdback and escrow arrangements per the terms of the agreement.