8×8 expands into SE Asia, acquires Singapore-based Wavecell

8×8 has acquired privately-held Wavecell Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based global Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) provider for $125 million in cash and stock.

The acquisition provides 8×8, which is listed at the New York Stock Exchange, with an established technology platform and high-growth revenue business to pursue CPaaS globally.

Also, the transaction represents a natural expansion of 8×8’s cloud business from Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS), Contact Center-as-a-Service (CCaaS), and Video into the CPaaS market.

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Further, the acquisition expands 8×8’s presence into the rapidly growing Southeast Asian market, including Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Hong Kong, with more than 500 enterprise customers, including Paidy, Lalamove and Tokopedia.

Wavecell also brings an R&D centre in Asia which allows 8×8 to further accelerate growth in product innovation and delivery.

“8×8 is now the only cloud provider that owns the full, global-scale, cloud-native, technology stack offering voice, video, messaging, and contact centre delivered both as pre-packaged applications and as enterprise-class APIs,” said Vik Verma, CEO of 8×8.

Olivier Gerhardt, CEO and co-founder of Wavecell, said now is the right time to leverage the global expansion of UCaaS, CCaaS and CPaaS services to better serve their customers’ growing demand for communication services and to continually drive greater innovation.

Under the terms of the agreement, 8×8 acquired Wavecell for total consideration of $125 million, which represents a multiple of less than four times the anticipated revenue of Wavecell for calendar 2019.

The amount covers $69 million in cash and $56 million in 8×8 common stock, of which $12 million of common stock is subject to certain vesting restrictions over a three-year period.