Five9 Weighs Sale Two Years After Failed Zoom Deal

(Bloomberg) -- Five9 Inc. has been exploring a potential sale, people with knowledge of the matter said, a little more than two years after the call center software provider scrapped a multibillion-dollar takeover by Zoom Video Communications Inc.

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San Ramon, California-based Five9 is working with advisers as it seeks to gauge interest from potential buyers, according to the people. It’s already held discussions with Zoom about possibly resurrecting a deal and is likely to attract other strategic suitors, they said.

Shares in Five9 rose as much as 16% on Monday for their biggest intraday gain in more than a year. The stock was up 12% at 3:34 p.m. in New York, giving the company a market value of about $6.5 billion. San Jose, California-based Zoom was down 3.9% for a market value of about $20.6 billion.

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.

Deliberations are ongoing and there’s no certainty they will result in a sale, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. A representative for Zoom declined to comment, while spokespeople for Five9 didn’t respond to requests for comment.

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.

(Updates shares in third paragraph.)

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