Our Q Advisors deal team were excellent partners for us through the entire M&A process.
They proved to be trusted advisors that know the industry as well as anyone. Importantly
for SimpleSignal, they really took the time to understand the unique aspects of our business
and effectively market our differentiation to their network of buyers. They worked tirelessly
with my management team to manage every facet of a competitive process that yielded a
number of attractive options for our stakeholders. In the end, we closed a highly
successful transaction with the ideal buyer. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend our Q
Advisors team and look forward to working with them again.
Dave Gilbert, CEO
SimpleSignal
HOLMDEL, N.J. – April 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) (“the Company”), a leading provider of cloud communications services for consumers and businesses, has completed the acquisition of Simple Signal Inc. (“SimpleSignal”), a leading provider of Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) and collaboration solutions to small and medium businesses (SMBs). Vonage paid $25.25 million for SimpleSignal, comprised of approximately $20 million in cash and approximately 1.1 million shares in Vonage common stock.
“The SimpleSignal acquisition represents another important step in the execution of our growth strategy for becoming the clear leader in Unified Communications as a Service. SimpleSignal is a natural complement to Vonage’s rapidly expanding UCaaS business. Its strong channel and strategic partnerships, coupled with a common underlying technology platform, deepens Vonage’s penetration in UCaaS,” said Alan Masarek, Vonage Chief Executive Officer.
“In less than 18 months, Vonage has become the fastest-growing provider of cloud communications in the SMB market. Becoming a part of Vonage will instantly put SimpleSignal at the forefront of growth in this market, and I couldn’t be more pleased that SimpleSignal’s employees, customers and partners will now benefit from the strength and scale of Vonage,” said Dave Gilbert, former Chief Executive Officer of SimpleSignal.
Mr. Gilbert will join Vonage as a special advisor working closely with Vonage management through the merger integration.
SimpleSignal uses BroadSoft’s BroadWorks platform, the same BroadSoft-based platform used by Telesphere, resulting in ease of integration for SimpleSignal customers. SimpleSignal sells its solutions primarily through a nationwide network of indirect channel partners, which meaningfully broadens Vonage’s already strong market coverage. Vonage’s channel organization is now one of the largest in the UCaaS sector.
SimpleSignal provides solutions with carrier-grade reliability across their own MPLS network and bring your own broadband (BYOB) delivery options. SimpleSignal has been particularly successful at providing business-quality voice and rich communication features utilizing new technologies to extend MPLS-like quality to BYOB customers. The acquisition further enhances Vonage’s ability to serve the needs of a wide range of businesses, from small office/home office companies to SMBs with distributed workforces, and firms with more than 1000 employees.
Denver-based investment bank, Q Advisors, served as exclusive financial advisor to SimpleSignal.
About Vonage
Vonage (NYSE: VG) is a leading provider of cloud communications services for consumers and businesses. Vonage provides a robust suite of feature-rich residential and business communication solutions that offer flexibility, portability and ease-of-use, designed to meet the needs of a wide range of customers from individuals to large businesses.
Vonage residential service (www.vonage.com) for individuals and families, and Vonage Business Solutions service (www.vonagebusiness.com) for small and medium businesses, run over the top of a customer’s existing broadband connection. Through Telesphere (www.telesphere.com), Vonage offers service with carrier-grade performance over a private national MPLS broadband network, which is especially well suited to address the needs of larger businesses with multiple offices that require higher service level agreements (SLAs).
About SimpleSignal
SimpleSignal provides cloud-based Unified Communications and Collaboration services, delivering voice, video, and mobile communications to thousands of satisfied business customers globally. The company provides the most innovative and advanced FMC and mobile PBX capabilities in the industry using its BroadSoft platform, and is one of the first companies ever to extend video PBX telephony over iPads, iPhones, and Android mobile devices that can connect with any brand of video conferencing equipment. SimpleSignal’s video conferencing product provides all the power and features of Polycom’s premise-based video conferencing systems in a fully-outsourced video as a service (VaaS) solution without on-premise video infrastructure. SimpleSignal is also investing heavily in integrations with Microsoft Lync, Google Apps and other SaaS solutions. For more information, visit www.simplesignal.com.
About Q Advisors
Q Advisors is an investment bank focused on assisting our clients with their most important business transactions – mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financings, and recapitalizations. In building long-term relationships with companies, we understand that every client and transaction is unique. And in working with them, their success becomes our sole priority.
Since 2001, Q Advisors has managed transactions for companies located on four continents with a total value approaching $8 billion. We bring deep industry expertise in our areas of focus: media and communications, cloud and managed services, and technology. With senior leadership that has founded, managed and owned large companies of our own, we focus squarely on the needs and interests of each client.
Please visit www.qllc.com for more information on our services and other recent transactions.