Five9 Plans to Expand in Europe With 2 Data Centres, Relocates Russian Staff to Portugal

Five9, the US call centre software firm whose shareholders spurned a merger with Zoom last year, is looking to expand in Europe by setting up two data centres and relocating its employees in Russia to Portugal.

The data centres will be in Frankfurt and Amsterdam, and serve customers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

"Around 10 percent of our revenue today comes from Europe ... we are looking to at least double our European contribution in the near term," CEO Rowan Trollope told Reuters.

Shareholders of Five9, whose call centre software is used by more than 2,000 companies, in October turned down a merger with Zoom after it refused to add cash to its bid, relying solely on stock as payment.

Faced with the Russia-Ukraine war, Five9 has also offered to relocate its 176 employees in Russia to Portugal where it is opening a development site.

"The office in Russia is closing on June 10," Trollope said. "We have offered to relocate our employees, and we don't know what percentage of them will go, but it could be like 100 of them or so."

Trollope expects its centre in Portugal to employ around 300 to 400 people.

The US call centre firm came in spotlight last year after Zoom aborted $14.7 billion (roughly Rs. 1,09,280 crores) acquisition of call centre software firm Five9.

Zoom's unwillingness to add cash to its bid and rely solely on its stock as currency to pay for the Five9 deal backfired after its shares slipped by as much as 29 percent in the weeks after the deal was announced in July 2021, on concerns that the return to physical meetings as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes will erode its business.

Five9 shareholders voted down the deal. Investment bankers and analysts said Zoom's stock would likely remain volatile until investors establish what the prospects of its business will be once the pandemic is over. This decreases the chances of another acquisition target accepting Zoom's shares as currency in the near term, they said.

© Thomson Reuters 2022