Panasonic PBX
Panasonic has made the strategic decision to discontinue the “Panasonic Business Communication” business (Panasonic PBX telephone systems, SIP telephone systems, and Scanner categories) in a time frame of two years from the announcement date (02.12.2020).
Why are the Panasonic PBX telephone systems discontinued?
In recent years Panasonic has worked hard to find a way to continue the business by making their organisation and its relationships with partners as sustainable as possible.
However, it has become apparent that this is not possible to continue given the current business environment based on the limited capability of factory resources as described below.
- A sharp decline of the market and rapid shift to cloud-based solutions.
- A technological mismatch between factory and future market needs and trends.
- Lagging behind their competitor’s R&D activities.
- A constant financial deficit due to the reasons above.
- Shift to new types of demand (Teams, Zoom, etc.) significantly accelerated by Covid-19 which makes the future of the Panasonic business untenable and unpredictable.
NEC PBX
NEC is another one exited the premises-based private branch exchange (PBX) business in all markets outside of Japan. This is a striking announcement, as it wasn’t that long ago that NEC was generally considered the world’s largest provider of PBX and key systems.
NEC is a remarkably diversified technology company. There’s nothing quite like it in the US, it overlaps with IBM, Boeing, Honeywell, GE, and more. It serves many sectors, including aerospace, agriculture, finance, retail, and of course, telecom. NEC was established in 1899 with some funding from Bell’s Western Electric. It was the first Japanese joint venture with a foreign company. NEC PBX phone systems have been trusted for many years, but new competition now provides business owners with more choices for more flexible, easier-to-use business phone systems like Phonewire.com.
In a letter sent to all dealer partners of NEC, announcing their exit from the on-premises phone system equipment manufacturing marketplace:
“Dear Valued Professional,
I am writing to you with an important update concerning NEC’s Unified Communications business. Today we are announcing that we have formally made the decision to exit our on-premise UC business outside of Japan over the next few years.
This change applies to all of our on-premise UC products. Subject to the above, please note that from today’s announcement:
– We will not accept any new Purchase Orders received after Dec. 31, 2024, nor will we enter into any new commitments/renewals/extensions after that date;
– We will not accept any new Purchase Orders with a scheduled or expected delivery date after March 31, 2025; and
– We will also not provide any hardware and/or software support services beyond March 31, 2026, except for any existing contractual obligations.
We further note that March 31, 2025, is the date we are targeting for completing the last shipment of products relating to any accepted Purchase Orders received and/or any new commitments/renewals/extensions agreed between April 15, 2024, and Dec. 31, 2024.
We thank you in advance for your understanding. Our teams will communicate with you as this process develops.
Sincerely,
NEC Corporation of America”
Mitel PBX
Mitel has officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, expecting a “swift” exit.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy enables organizations to stay running as they reorganize their debt loads and repay creditors.
Don’t confuse this with chapter seven bankruptcy: liquidation.
According to sources, Mitel has a debt of $235MN that will mature in December 2025.
The company’s bankruptcy plan, which – if approved by the courts – will enable it to pay that money back in two key ways.
First, by rapidly selling off some of its assets to capture approximately $135MN in funds.
Second, by securing financing worth $124.5MN. That will come from two sources: a $60MN commitment from debtor-in-possession (“DIP”) financing and another $64.5MN from new exit financing, should the court approve Mitel’s plan.
The former financing source will support continued operations during the Chapter 11 process, with Mitel promising “minimal disruption to customers, employees, vendors, or partners.”
Mitel says its bankruptcy plan has support from “a majority” of its lenders.
That plan concerns only the US, Canada, and select UK business segments. It will not impact the broader global business, which will operate on its “normal course”.
However, the filing does mark a significant milestone in Mitel’s strategy pivot, with the restructure of Mitel’s capital aiming to prioritize the “hybrid communications market opportunity”.
A hybrid communications model allows businesses to keep critical infrastructure on-premise and layering SaaS innovation over the top.
Mitel increasingly offers such services through first-hand innovation and new partnerships, including those recently announced with Genesys and Zoom.
Currently, Mitel operates in over 100 countries, with 70MN users leveraging those services.
Sources: CX Today
How does these PBX giants end up like this? Yes, no thanks to those bunch of Cloud Based PBX providers promoting about how cheap cloud-based solutions can be but they never tell you that there is a big price to pay at the end of the day!
