PGi Acquires Powwownow, U.K.’s Leading Conferencing and Collaboration Provider for SMBs
Company Reiterates 2013 Guidance; Provides 2014 Outlook: Sales of SaaS-based Products Projected to Grow Greater than 50% Year-Over-Year and Account for Over 10% of Total Revenue by the End of 2014
ATLANTA and LONDON – December 4, 2013 – PGi (NYSE: PGi), a global leader in collaboration and virtual meetings for over 20 years, today announced that it has acquired Via-Vox Limited, trading under the name Powwownow, one of Europe’s fastest growing conferencing and collaboration providers focused on small and medium sized businesses, for a cash purchase price of approximately $52.6 million USD, net of working capital. PGi funded the purchase through its credit facility and cash and equivalents on hand.
“Powwownow’s dominance in the SMB space in the U.K. makes it a valuable acquisition for PGi,” said Boland T. Jones, PGi founder, chairman and CEO. “The acquisition reinforces our strategy of expanding PGi’s customer base and identifying products that enhance our portfolio, while delivering meaningful revenue and earnings accretion that enable us to fund additional growth investments. Powwownow users will gain access to our award-winning web conferencing solutions, iMeet® and GlobalMeet®, to drive their businesses forward.”
The acquisition positions PGi as the second largest independent conferencing and collaboration provider in Europe. Founded in 2004, Powwownow offers its customers conference calling with frictionless sign-up, simplified billing and a robust SMB go-to-market approach. Powwownow serves approximately 240,000 active users in the U.K., France and Germany and has a current projected annual revenue run rate of approximately $22 million USD.
“Powwownow’s unique brand and innovative approach to audio conferencing has yielded powerful growth in Europe, particularly in the U.K. With a maniacal customer acquisition strategy, amazing discipline in customer experience execution and a laser focus on the SMB market, this acquisition provides PGi with a growing brand and a captive audience for its iMeet and GlobalMeet web products,” said Marc Beattie, senior analyst, Wainhouse Research.
“Joining forces with PGi, one of the original innovators in the conferencing and collaboration industry worldwide, expands the scale, reach and service options available to Powwownow customers,” said Paul Lees, founder and CEO of Powwownow. “Powwownow brings PGi new go-to-market capabilities, including our brand awareness, small business marketing expertise and online infrastructure. We are thrilled to join the PGi family.”
Financial Outlook
The following statements are based on PGi’s current expectations. These statements contain forward-looking statements and company estimates, and actual results may differ materially. PGi assumes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release.
Based on current business trends and current foreign currency exchange rates, PGi anticipates that its results for 2013 will be within the financial outlook ranges it provided on October 30, 2013: net revenues from continuing operations are projected to be in the range of $523-$525 million and non-GAAP diluted EPS from continuing operations are projected to be in the range of $0.78-$0.79*.
Based on current business trends and current foreign currency exchange rates, and assuming no additional acquisitions, PGi anticipates that 2014 net revenues from continuing operations will be in the range of $560-$570 million and non-GAAP diluted EPS from continuing operations will be in the range of $0.85-$0.88*. PGi anticipates that sales of its SaaS-based products will increase over 50% in 2014 compared to 2013 and will comprise in excess of 10% of its consolidated annual revenue run-rate by the end of 2014.
* Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The non-GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations projections exclude equity-based compensation, amortization expenses, non-recurring tax adjustments, restructuring costs, excise and sales tax expense, asset impairments, net legal settlements and related expenses, and acquisition-related costs. Management uses this measure internally as a means of analyzing the company’s current and future financial performance and identifying trends in our financial condition and results of operations. We have provided this information to investors to assist in meaningful comparisons of past, present and future operating results and to assist in highlighting the results of ongoing core operations.
