It’s not every day that a Canadian company gets acquired for north of $200M, much less one in the telecom space. But it can happen, as evidenced by last week’s announced purchase of Ottawa-based ProtusIP by J2Global for a cool $213M.
ProtusIP providers a variety of small business communications services, including fax, email marketing and its virtual PBX offering – My1Voice. The ladder competes with the likes of Grasshopper, Phone.com and of course J2Global that itself has several properties in the space. I’d like to call this deal a signal of pending consoladtion in the virtual PBX market, but in this case, it was Protus’ MyFax that was the prize – and in more ways than one.
For starters, it’s estimated that ProtusIP does about $70M/yr in the fax business. Not too shabby. What’s more is that J2 and Protus have apparently fought for years – most recently in the UK courts – over the ‘eFax’ trademark. At the end of the day, the old ‘if you cant beat ‘em, join ‘em’ seems to have kicked in for one, if not both companies.
Whatever the real story, Ottawa’s funding environment (not famous of late), may be the real benefactor here. Outside of the Canadian VC’s that get to exit this deal with a smile (and hopefully re-invest somewhere else), the transaction should create a new flock of local angels (everyone including the janitor had options, said the CEO).
As for J2, they are no strangers to buying companies. This purchase marks at least number four for the year, having acquired assets in voice, email marketing and fax services earlier in the year. And they don’t appear to be done. A quick trip to the website and you’ll find not only the opportunity to apply for work, but also to have your company considered for purchase. Anyone?
