With the acquisition yesterday Intertel based in Tempe Arizona by Ottawa based Mitel, we have ushered in a new period of telephony rationalization, specifically in the crowed SMB space.
The acquisition will create a privately-held IP communications vendor with over $800 million in sales, twice the revenue Mitel has today, the Ottawa, Ontario-based company said in a statement: The combined company will have a portfolio that targets SMB and enterprise customers with a range of VoIP, unified communications, networking, management products, including communications applications such as messaging, contact center, mobility and collaboration.
Both Cisco and Microsoft recently announced new SMB products. Along with the other major North American players (Nortel and Avaya), the market for SMB CPE products is only going to heat up resulting in some consolidation. For Application Services vendors like Cistera, Citrix and others this only increases the opportunity where Telephony Application Services become a major consideration when purchasing an IP PBX.
