Call Center Software Firm Five9 Approached on Potential Takeover

Ryan Gould, Katie Roof and Dinesh Nair
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(Bloomberg) -- Five9 Inc. said it’s received fresh takeover interest, roughly two years after the call center software provider scrapped a multibillion-dollar takeover by Zoom Video Communications Inc.

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Bloomberg News reported Monday that Five9 has been working with advisers as it fields interest from potential buyers. In a statement Tuesday, the San Ramon, California-based company said it “was approached with such an opportunity” but is not pursuing a transaction.

Zoom has held discussions about possibly resurrecting a deal with Five9, which is likely to attract other strategic suitors as well, people with knowledge of the matter said earlier. Shares of Five9, which had a market value of $5.8 billion at the close Tuesday in New York, fell as much as 5.7% in post-market trading.

San Jose, California-based Zoom sought to buy Five9 in the summer of 2021 to bolster its videoconferencing app in the face of stiffening competition. But a proposed $14.7 billion transaction ultimately fell apart after a decline in Zoom’s shares, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to ebb, slashed the all-stock deal’s value and led Five9’s shareholders to reject the offer.

Five9 makes cloud-based software that uses artificial intelligence to help companies answer questions from customers and interact with them regardless of language, location or device. It software is used to handle more than 14 billion call minutes every year, according to the company’s website.

A deal for Five9 would allow Zoom to expand its offerings to more lucrative business and enterprise customers and helped it better compete with the likes of Cisco Systems Inc., RingCentral Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. in letting clients provide customer service via the internet.

--With assistance from Brody Ford.

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