U.S based telecommunication company Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) announced reaching a consensus with BlueJeans Network Inc. to buy the video conferencing company in a deal worth $500 million.
In recent times, there has been an increasing demand in video conferencing services, with the coronavirus pandemic situation escalating the demand even further since a lot of people are staying and working at home due to imposed lockdowns and quarantines.
BlueJeans co-founder and Executive Chairman Krish Ramakrishnan, said video conferencing has become new order of the day further adding it took the two parties three straight month to reach an agreement.
Ramakrishnan further pointed out that the meetings about the deal were entirely conducted online including virtue signatures where applicable.
Currently, BlueJeans boast of having over 15,000 enterprise clients, the firm also acknowledges notable names like Facebook Inc. (FB) and Standard Chartered PLC (STAN) being among its clients.
Verizon has always been a partner in BlueJeans in fact the video conferencing tool is offered to clients under the name of a unified collaboration between the two parties.
Ramakrishnan said among the top reason for selling the company, was their inability to increase sales and marketing. These two needed extra capital something which BlueJeans didn’t have.
“In the last month, we have been growing, but we needed more capital to grow and it was better for our customers and our employees that we joined forces with Verizon,” he added.
Following closing of the deal, Verizon will merge BlueJeans with its 5G services giving them a upper hand to try and penetrate telemedicine, distance learning and other areas in need of video conferencing services.
