Since the big Metaswitch layoffs in June, we’ve been saying that it would make the most sense for Microsoft to sell the Metaswitch assets to a third-party – and yesterday the announcement came. Alianza has acquired Metaswitch.
Obviously there’s a lot that we don’t know, but significantly, I did hear that Alianza is planning to extend the end-of-life dates on MaX UC and MaX Meeting.
You can read the full announcement here.
Obviously this acquisition is a huge deal, and significantly changes the industry landscape for service providers who are using Metaswitch products – but at the same time, this process is just beginning, and it’s going to take a long time to really understand what this all means. I think my biggest questions are (a) what will the team look like once this is all complete, and (b) what is the vision for the product in the future?
One of the most challenging things about any acquisition is that it takes a long time. I imagine today’s announcement was the result of months of negotiations and due diligence, but this is not the end of the process. The deal won’t be finalized until sometime in Q1 2025.
I would assume that Alianza has a clear plan – and hopefully we’ll get to learn more about that soon – but it will take time to implement that plan. Even once Alianza fully controls the Metaswitch organization and assets, the effort involved to integrate a large organization is very significant – so it could be six months or a year from now before anything starts to change.
So what does this mean for service providers with Metaswitch products?
Well, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Don’t panic.
The Metaswitch platform is a good product, and if it’s working well for you now there’s no need to make any hasty decisions.
- If you want to keep using your Metaswitch, then do so. In time, we’ll find out what kind of support and roadmap Alianza is planning to offer, and Award Consulting is still very committed to helping you with whatever technical assistance you need on your Metaswitch. That’s been our core business for years, and nothing has changed. So if you like your Metaswitch, keep using it.
- If you decide you want to move to another product (whether that’s Alianza’s cloud platform or another vendor) then we’ll be happy to help you with that migration.
I’m sure we’ll learn more in the coming weeks and months. Make sure you are subscribed to our email newsletter at http://www.awardconsulting.com/newsletter to stay up to date with further developments.
