HP has reached an agreement on the acquisition of Poly, which specialices in cameras and headsets. HP will pay 3.3 billion dollars (3 billion euros) for Poly.
With the acquisition of Poly, HP wants to grow as a vendor of hybrid work solutions. It can already help in this with, for example, laptops and monitors, but with the addition of Poly there are also collaboration solutions. According to HP, hybrid working in both home and office environments requires more collaboration solutions. “Approximately 75% of office workers are investing to improve their home setups to support new ways of working. Traditional office spaces are also being reconfigured to support hybrid work and collaboration, with a focus on meeting room solutions,” said HP.
The Poly portfolio includes video conferencing solutions, cameras, headsets, voice solutions and associated software. “Together, HP and Poly will deliver a complete ecosystem of devices, software, and digital services to create premium employee experiences, improve workforce productivity, and provide enterprise customers with better visibility, insights, security, and manageability across their hybrid IT environments.”
HP will pay 40 dollars per Poly share. That is 53 per cent more than the company’s last stock price. HP will finance the acquisition through balance sheet cash and new debt, although the amount was not disclosed. At the same time, HP emphasises that it is pushing ahead with its plan to buy back $4 billion in shares.
Expectations
Poly was created in 2019 by merging the companies Plantronics and Polycom. In 2018, Plantronics bought Polycom for $2 billion. At the moment, we have not been able to find out exactly what will happen to the Poly brand.
HP expects to finalise that acquisition by the end of this year. The acquisition is subject to approval by Poly’s srockholders and regulatory approval.
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