Polycom scoops up Voyant

Expecting an uneventful Friday, I was a little surprised when I popped open my e-mail this morning to learn Polycom has acquired Voyant Technologies. Voyant will now be part of Polycom’s Network Systems group. At first, the $110 million deal didn’t make much sense to me. Polycom’s main focus is the enterprise, while Voyant builds big carrier-class voice application servers for the likes of AT&T and Verizon. Polycom sees this as a means of getting its foot in the door with the big carriers and sell them video conferencing network gear that may help drive sales of video endpoints to the enterprise. Also, Polycom could push its Polycom Office suite into a service provider, allowing customers to buy it as a service rather than installing it locally. Voyant is profitable (according to one of its executives) meaning the acquisition should help pay for itself over time.