Zoom and Five9 have mutually agreed to call off their merger, the companies announced Thursday, after Five9 failed to get sufficient stockholder support for the deal. Zoom had agreed in July to pay$14.7 billion for the contact center business. 

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"While we were excited about the benefits this transaction would bring to both Zoom and Five9 stakeholders, including the long-term potential for both sets of shareholders, financial discipline is foundational to our strategy," Zoom CEO and founder Eric S. Yuan said in a statement. "The contact center market remains a strategic priority for Zoom, and we are confident in our ability to capture its growth potential." 

The purchase of Five9 would have given Zoom more heft in the enterprise and a way into the$24 billion contact center market. Zoom has expanded past video conferencing with Zoom Phone, but building out a full contact center business could take years. That's time customers don't have, particularly with other options available from the likes of Cisco, Avaya, NICE, Genesys, and Twilio.

In his statement Thursday, Yuan noted the steps Zoom is already taking to wade into the market. Its cloud-based contact center solution, called Zoom Video Engagement Center, will launch in early 2022. 

"Video Engagement Center will be a flexible, easy-to-use solution that connects businesses and their customers," he said. "We are building this new solution with the same scalability and trusted architecture that has made Zoom the platform of choice for businesses around the world." 

Meanwhile, Zoom will maintain its partnership with Five9, as well as other companies like Genesys, NICE inContact, Talkdesk, and Twilio.

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