Verizon wrapped up its deal to buy video conferencing company BlueJeans Network on Friday. While Verizon has yet to put a price tag on its BlueJeans acquisition, which was first announced in April, it previously confirmed that it paid below $500 million.
With the deal in-hand, BlueJean's 390 employees, as well as its founders, have joined Verizon Business. While Verizon had been a BlueJeans distributor for several quarters, it was considering buying the company even before the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Verizon Business bought BlueJeans to beef up its business group as it rolls out 5G and targets new wireless applications at its business customers. Verizon could use BlueJeans' video conferencing platform to help companies in high growth areas such as remote training, distance learning and field service work. BlueJeans' cloud-based video service being folded into Verizon Business' unified communications portfolio and "deeply integrated" into its 5G roadmap.
During last month's first quarter earnings call, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said that in addition to adding BlueJeans' capabilities to its existing distribution, it would also be used for "the future of 5G where we think there are video capabilities that (are) going to be extremely important."
RELATED: Verizon Business strikes a deal to buy video conferencing company BlueJeans
Verizon Business struck the deal for a video conferencing platform as millions of employees across the globe started working remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic. Video conferencing usage has exploded across rival platforms such as Zoom Video Communications and Cisco's Webex.
While Zoom has been under fire for its lack of security encryption, which has led to "Zoombombing" by uninvited conference participants, BlueJeans encrypts its video sessions. Unlike Zoom, which is free for use by businesses and consumers, BlueJeans was designed as a business application.
According to Crunchbase, BlueJeans was founded in 2009 by Alagu Periyannan and Krish Ramakrishnan. BlueJeans has raised $175 million in venture capital, according to the Wall Street Journal story.
According to its website, BlueJeans' customer roster includes LinkedIn, Red Hat, ADP, Zillow and Facebook. In addition to video conferencing, BlueJeans also hosts audio conferencing and webinars.
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Verizon Business, which serves large enterprises, has a revenue stream of about $30 billion and roughly 5,000 global accounts across healthcare, banking and other large verticals.