Tandberg-Cisco deal puts Polycom in play?

4 October 2009

Polycom is for certain in play being such a large platform independent voice and video hardware manufacturer. I have been brainstorming what this means having the 8,000 pound gorilla now in the video conferencing market in such a major way with an army of sales people and marketing. If anyone have $3 billion and what to make a company to really take on this challenge, please contact me (I am very serious). I have already had some wealth managers call me asking my thoughts on this acquisition.

Cisco Systems Inc's overture for Norway's Tandberg puts U.S.-based Polycom Inc in play as it is the only public company now left in the video conferencing market. Polycom could also be gravitating toward selling itself as the threat of competing with a behemoth like Cisco looms large, analysts said. On October 1, network equipment maker Cisco said it entered a deal to buy Tandberg for $3 billion.

Polycom might be the best bet left for companies that want to tap the fast-growing video conferencing products market, worth about $2 billion in 2008. Cisco's peers might also want to play catch-up as a key high-growth market ends up in their rival's lap.

"Video has become strategic and there's a limited place to play it," Piper Jaffray analyst Troy Jensen said. "Now that Tandberg is getting acquired, maybe it accelerates the timeframe."

"Polycom is a logical acquisition target for someone," Jensen added.

Polycom and Tandberg control three-fourths of the video conferencing products market. The rest of the market is fragmented with firms like Cisco, with its Telepresence products, Hewlett-Packard and privately held LifeSize rounding it out.

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