Poly Inc., formerly Polycom, is an American multinational corporation that develops video, voice and content collaboration and communication technology.
[10] Polycom's stated goal was to support all the major ways people communicate, specifically including audio, content such as documents, and video.
[18][19] In July 2016, the Mitel deal was scrapped in favor of an all-cash offer from New York City–based private equity firm Siris Capital Group.
[23] The United States Justice Department declined to bring criminal charges for misconduct that allegedly occurred between 2006 and 2014, citing Polycom's voluntary disclosure.
[24] On March 28, 2022 HP Inc. announced their acquisition of Poly from Plantronics, completed in August 2022[25] with a total transaction value of $3.3 billion, including debt.
The company also licensed a variety of technologies, including H.264 video codecs, Siren codecs, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), native 1080p high-definition cameras and displays, native 720p and 1080p high-definition encoding/decoding, low-latency architecture and low bandwidth utilization, wideband advanced audio coding with low delay (AAC-LD), multichannel spatial audio with echo cancellation and interference filters to eliminate feedback from mobile devices, and inter-operation with legacy video conferencing.
Its first product in 1992 was SoundStation, a triangular speakerphone with full-duplex audio allowing both parties to simultaneously speak and be heard.
Building on technological advancements that occurred during the nearly 10-year period, the SoundStation 2 exhibited more features and improved sound transparency, although was still limited to 3 kHz audio bandwidth due to its conventional analog POTS connection.
[42] With the 12-input and 12-output Vortex, Polycom's offerings could be extended to audio-visual integrators who needed to handle many more microphones and speakers than traditional teleconferencing systems provided.
It also launched the CX5000, a table-mounted video and audio conferencing console with a 360-degree camera, by licensing the distribution rights for Microsoft Roundtable.
[44] In 2012 the Wifi and DECT products were divested to a new company called Spectralink, spinning it off to Sun Capital Partners for about $110 million.
[10] In 1997, the company began shipping ShowStation in addition to its growing line of audio products and had total revenues of $47 million.
In February 2001, Polycom entered the multipoint bridging market through its acquisition of Accord Networks,[47] which offered the MGC-100 line.
[49] In February 2007, the firm introduced a new multipoint bridge platform called RMX 2000, designed to support HD and telepresence applications.