It's A Deal, Genband and Sonus Merge

Last Wednesday, I broke the news that Sonus and Genband are getting hitched. Today the announcement came out to make it official.

Why does this feel so much like the Nokia-Siemens deal to me? Why is this feeling like some jobs are going to be lost? Why most of all does this feel like customers are going to be the ones hurt near term while the companies put their teams together?

When mergers happen things don't stay the same. Ever. Integration. Consolidation of platforms. Integration of teams. Even billing and payment systems all get tossed up in the air. The teams that are in charge of combining the company are often the ones who survive, but if you're a head of something, figure that it's either you or someone else that's going to be the person with the job.

If you're a customer, it's never smooth sailing. All of a sudden your sales rep is gone. The Sales Engineer is busy explaining things internally about why this is that way vs. the other way. Then all of a sudden they're gone...it's no fun.

If you were considering Genband, Kandy or Sonus, maybe other solutions providers who are completely stable and not in the middle muddle of merger hell are a better option.....because when the dust settles, this will all still be a mess.

Comments

[Shubydoo]

You are right on the money. No mention of growth. No mention of mobile or Enterprise market. Sad, private equity cashing out with public money with the hopes of squeezing out last ounces of cash at expense of people, customers. A classic case of lack of strategy or innovation in a highly dynamic industry, where likes of Amazon and Snapchat are reinventing voice and video communication.