Marlin Equity Partners is merging videoconferencing provider Lifesize and Serenova, a contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) provider. Marlin Equity Partners, a global investment firm with over $6.7 billion of capital under management, is the financial sponsor of the merger and will continue to invest and support the growth of the combined business to address the $60 billion unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) market. Most recently, Marlin led the merger between AVI-SPL and Whitlock.

With the merger, Marlin says they are addressing the convergence of UCaaS and CCaaS technologies in the contact center with a complementary platform of enterprise-grade, cloud-based, high-definition video collaboration and contact center solutions –– both recognized by Gartner, Inc. in their respective industry Magic Quadrants. According to Marlin, the new entity will enable customers to consolidate the patchwork of communications, contact center and video collaboration solutions. The company will provide customers with global scale and tailored local support through its partner ecosystem in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Craig Malloy, founder and CEO of Lifesize, will serve as CEO of the new company. Serenova CEO John Lynch will assume the role of senior vice president of sales, including strategic oversight of global major accounts.

“Deeper customer and employee engagement through more vivid, direct communications is where the world’s most successful businesses will distinguish themselves from the competition,” said Malloy. “This merger joins two companies with vast market expertise and cutting-edge, cloud-based solutions. When combined into an integrated platform, we will be uniquely positioned to help organizations deliver communication experiences that far surpass the status quo, from the contact center to the meeting room and beyond.”

“Lifesize has a long track record of innovation in business communications and a strong dedication to customer success,” said Lynch. “The synergies between Serenova and Lifesize solutions will allow us to revolutionize how businesses communicate with their customers and will deepen the value we can offer to our existing contact center customers worldwide.”

Marlin Equity Partners, which recently led Serenova’s acquisition of the ProScheduler platform from Loxysoft, will play a key role in the combined company’s go-forward strategy to create a holistic unified communications portfolio through acquisition, partnerships and product development.

Lifesize is here and Serenova is here.