Polycom acquires HP teleconferencing unit

Polycom this week announced it is acquiring Hewlett Packard's teleconferencing business unit, including Halo. The video conferencing company will also become HP's exclusive video communications partner for resale and internal deployments.

Additionally, HP will integrate Polycom's video applications in its WebOS platform and Touchpad product line.

The acquisition of the visual collaboration unit is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011.

Polycom also announced it has teamed  with service providers to establish an open video exchange, the Open Visual Communications Consortium. In a statement the company said OVCC would usher in "an era of growth and opportunity for the industry, and fundamentally change the way people communicate". The exchange would allow users to make video calls from anywhere - to anywhere - regardless of the network on either end. The OVCC includes founding members from a number of global telcos and service providers. \ Polycom shareholders are in for a 2-for-1 stock split, which will entitle each stockholder of record at the close of business on Wednesday, 15 June, 2011, to receive one additional share for every one share owned as of that date.  The additional shares resulting from the stock split are expected to be distributed by the company’s transfer agent on or about Friday, July 1, 2011.

Polycom hosted webcast to discuss these announcements (registration required).