Poly Inc.

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.

Polycom SoundStation IP 4000 SIP conference phone
Former Polycom headquarters in San Jose
Polycom VSX 7000 unit with dual displays.
Polycom Digital Tabletop Microphone with mute button