Written by Amy Ralls | Nov 5, 2021 4:00:00 AM
Infobip adds muscle to offering in the US market, while also presenting a larger distribution network for Peerless’ products and services
Vodnjan, Croatia & Chicago, IL, USA -
November 2, 2021 -
Infobip Group, a global cloud communications platform company for customer engagement, and leader in CPaaS solutions, today announces that it has entered into a definitive agreement with global VoIP provider Peerless Network, marking Infobip’s fourth acquisition in under a year. The transaction is expected to complete upon receipt of regulatory approvals in 2022 and will be financed with a combination of Infobip shares and cash. Peerless Network management will roll parts of its holdings into Infobip. The deal extends Infobip’s voice presence in the US and makes its world class suite of CPaaS products available to Peerless customers, driving high quality conversation across the entire customer journey. Launched in 2008, the Peerless Network portfolio delivers a robust suite of cutting-edge voice, UCaaS, SIP Trunking, Messaging, APIs, MS Teams integration, and other collaboration products and services. With its own nationwide voice network, Peerless Network is trusted by enterprises, Fortune 500 companies, world-leading MNOs, MVNOs and IXCs, and the nation’s largest CLECs and VOIP Service Providers. For more than a decade, Peerless Network has been delivering the most agile, cost-effective, simple-to-deploy voice solutions, and unmatched customer service to meet work-from anywhere business needs. Covering 93% of the US population, it has more than 4,500 interconnections in 49 (US) states, processing 9 billion monthly minutes in over 200 markets. The acquisition builds on Infobip’s ongoing investments and earlier acquisition of US messaging heavyweight OpenMarket, which closed in December 2020. Q1 2021 Revenue grew 55% y/y, a function of continued usage growth in its core business plus contribution from the $300m acquisition of OpenMarket. Other acquisitions include the developer Shift Conference franchise, purchased in April, and the world’s number one SMS firewall provider, Anam in May 2021. In September 2021, Infobip also secured, through direct loan placement, additional funding in the amount of $500m, advised by Morgan Stanley, and led by funds managed by the Credit Group of Ares Management Corporation, and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. The direct loan placement puts Infobip alongside an exclusive group of high growth, high value technology companies, which utilized the same structure. This is Infobip’s second funding round, following One Equity Partner’s EUR 300m investment in H2 2020. Silvio Kutić, CEO of Infobip said: “Today’s announcement accelerates our international growth strategy by several years. Financially, strategically, and operationally, this is very positive. The acquisition enables Infobip to continue to grow its business in the US, in sync with Peerless Network’s strategy. Our current and future customers will benefit from access to the most comprehensive suite of SaaS enabled CPaaS software available in the market on one single platform for an end-to-end customer experience. Further, Peerless will substantially strengthen voice proposition for the Infobip CPaaS offering. Together we will offer a truly global network with local teams to serve businesses and people around the world, focused on delivering unbeatable customer experiences at scale. We’re thrilled to welcome this groundbreaking team to Infobip and congratulate them on their tremendous performance.” In bringing together complementary solutions, the two companies will process more than 30 billion monthly customer interactions across the full range of communication channels, in more than 190 countries around the globe. John Barnicle, Peerless Network’s CEO: “We’re thrilled about the immense opportunity this combination unlocks, enabling us to expand services, capabilities and offer scale to our customers. Combining our leading voice offering with Infobip’s global messaging capabilities truly prepares us for leadership in the rapidly developing market for cloud communications. This acquisition will, among other things, enable Peerless Network to comprehensively support its customers with their international needs outside of US.” Founded a few years apart in the mid-2000s, both companies have experienced high-growth and are truly innovative in their respective approaches to the market based on shared cultures that centre on employee participation at all levels. Tax and financial support was performed by Ernst & Young (EY). Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal advisor and Regions Securities as financial advisor to Infobip. Moelis & Company LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor to Peerless Network and DLA Piper acted as legal advisor.
About Infobip Infobip is a global cloud communications platform that enables businesses to build connected experiences across all stages of the customer journey. Accessed through a single platform, Infobip’s omnichannel engagement, identity, user authentication and contact center solutions help businesses and partners overcome the complexity of consumer communications to grow business and increase loyalty. With over a decade of industry experience, Infobip has expanded to 65+ offices across six continents. It offers natively built technology with the capacity to reach over seven billion mobile devices and ‘things’ in 190+ countries connected directly to over 650 telecom networks. In the past 12 months alone, over 5 billion people have used Infobip solutions and services. Infobip was established in 2006 and is led by its co-founders, CEO Silvio Kutić, Roberto Kutić and Izabel Jelenić.