Jilted Mitel to continue down acquisition route

Vendor looking at ‘several options' after collapse of Polycom deal

Communications vendor Mitel is running the rule over various acquisition targets after its Polycom takeover collapsed.

The $1.96bn (£1.36bn) deal looked a formality until Polycom pulled out, instead putting pen to paper on a $2bn with private equity firm Siris Capital.

Simon Skellon, vice president of sales at Mitel, told CRN that the failed deal will not deter further acquisition activity.

"The disappointment with the Polycom deal falling through doesn't dent our appetite to continue acquiring.

"We're always looking for acquisitions and there's always several options that we're working on.

"The process of a big acquisition every couple of years and then tuck-in technologies will continue."

Mitel has made a number of high-profile acquisitions over recent years, including Astra, Mavenir, Tiger TMS and Oasis. Last month Skellon also told CRN of Mitel's plans to increase its IT presence and look at the "big parts of the IT market that we don't serve today".

Elsewhere, Mitel is set to announce its Q2 and half-year figures next week. Skellon could not divulge any hard figures, but told said that the firm is doing "extremely well, not only in the UK but globally".

"It's a tough market out there; we shouldn't move away from that," he added. "It's extremely tough but we're overachieving against our peers at all levels, not only [in] enterprise and large enterprise, but all the way up the food chain from VSB and SMB up to large enterprise."