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RingCentral Announces Extended and Expanded Strategic Partnership Agreement with Avaya

Written by Amy Ralls | Feb 14, 2023 5:00:00 AM
BELMONT, CA - February 14, 2023 - RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE: RNG), a leading provider of global enterprise cloud communications, video meetings, collaboration, and contact center solutions, today announced an extended and expanded strategic partnership agreement with Avaya Inc., a global provider of solutions to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration. As part of Avaya’s transformation and expedited recapitalization, Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral (“ACO”) remains Avaya’s exclusive multi-tenanted Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solution to Avaya’s customers, including its on-premises installed base totaling tens of millions of users worldwide. Under the terms of the expanded agreement, RingCentral and Avaya have agreed to extend their multi-year partnership with minimum seat commitments and a better aligned incentive structure intended to drive accelerated migration to ACO. These improvements will unlock further opportunities for RingCentral and Avaya to maximize value for their customers. The partnership has also expanded to include additional go-to-market models that enable Avaya to sell Avaya Cloud Office to its installed base on a direct basis. “Under our past agreement with Avaya hundreds of thousands of seats have transitioned to ACO. With this new agreement, we expect for this motion to continue and accelerate as new product integrations and sales plays will be enabled,” said Vlad Shmunis, founder, chairman and CEO of RingCentral. “As part of its recapitalization, Avaya is emerging stronger and better positioned to migrate the world’s largest on-premises installed base to Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral, the best UCaaS destination for every Avaya Unified Communications customer.” “Our goal is to serve our customers first and foremost,” said Alan Masarek, CEO of Avaya. “Through our extended and expanded partnership with RingCentral, we look forward to empowering our customers in their cloud migration journeys — creating an all win situation for our customers, RingCentral, Avaya, and our channel partners.” To further differentiate ACO, both RingCentral and Avaya will make further product and development investments into ACO, including ACO’s integration with other Avaya products. “RingCentral and Avaya have a strong playbook for migrating customers to the cloud through ACO,” said Elka Popova, vice president of digital transformation at Frost & Sullivan. “Leveraging RingCentral’s integration with Avaya telephony endpoints, and RingCentral’s reputation as a trusted provider of leading cloud communications solutions — together with Avaya’s existing go-to-market strategy and channel community – this partnership offers a compelling path for customers to move to the cloud.” Advisors Guggenheim Securities, LLC served as financial advisor to RingCentral. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is acting as legal advisor to RingCentral. About RingCentral RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE: RNG) is a leading provider of business cloud communications and contact center solutions based on its powerful Message Video Phone™  (MVP®) global platform. More flexible and cost-effective than legacy on-premises PBX and video conferencing systems, RingCentral® empowers modern mobile and distributed workforces to communicate, collaborate, and connect via any mode, device, and device location. RingCentral offers three essential products in its portfolio, including RingCentral MVP®, a Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform including team messaging, video meetings, and cloud phone system; RingCentral Video®,  the company's video meetings solution with team messaging that enables Smart Video Meetings™; and RingCentral Contact Center™ solutions. RingCentral's open platform integrates with leading third-party business applications and allows customers to customize business workflows easily. RingCentral is headquartered in Belmont, California, and has offices worldwide. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains “forward-looking statements,” including but not limited to, statements regarding RingCentral’s future financial and operating performance, RingCentral’s strategic partnership with Avaya, the marketing and sale of Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral, the anticipated benefits of and activity under RingCentral’s strategic partnership with Avaya, and the ability to create a long-term growth opportunities for RingCentral. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including risks related to the parties’ ability to perform their obligations under the strategic partnership and related commercial arrangements, the parties ability to successfully develop and execute the envisioned jointly developed programs, technology and automation, the ability to successfully transition customers to Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral, as well as those risks and uncertainties included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” in RingCentral’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2022, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission; and in other filings RingCentral makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to RingCentral as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, to review or confirm analysts’ expectations, or to provide interim reports or updates .