Mitel Networks Corporation is a Canadian

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that ...

company. The company previously produced TDM PBX systems and applications, but after a change in ownership in 2001, now focuses almost entirely on

Voice-over-IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet ...

(VoIP) products. Mitel is headquartered in

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Canada, with offices, partners and resellers worldwide. In April 2018, the company announced it would be bought by an investor group led by

Searchlight Capital Partners Searchlight Capital Partners is a private equity firm. Searchlight Capital was established in 2010 by Eric Zinterhofer, Oliver Haarmann, and Erol Uzumeri, its founding partners. It has offices in New York, Conduit Street, London and Toronto. ...

Corporate history

Founding

Michael Cowpland Michael Cowpland (born April 23, 1943 in Bexhill-on-Sea) is a British-born entrepreneur, businessman, and the founder and one-time president, chairman and CEO of Corel, a Canadian software company. Career Mitel Cowpland worked for Bell Northern ...

and

Terry Matthews Sir Terence Hedley Matthews (born 6 June 1943) is a Welsh-Canadian business magnate, serial high-tech entrepreneur, and Wales' first billionaire. He was the richest man in Wales until 2012, when he was surpassed by Sir Michael Moritz. He has ...

founded Mitel in 1973 (officially on June 8, 1973). Conventionally, its name is regarded as a combination of the founders’ first names and their first product – "MIke and TErry Lawnmowers".

is quoted as stating that it stands for "MIke and Terry ELectronics", whereas

confirmed the lawnmower acronym during an interview on BBC Radio 4's ''The Bottom Line'' in May 2011. The pair formed the corporation with the blessing of their employer, Bell Northern Research (based on the original premise that it stood for "Mike and Terry Lawnmowers"), in order to protect their

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

rights of tone to pulse converter design from their employer, who otherwise would have legal ownership rights. Their first shipment of three lawnmowers was lost in shipping, so they quickly adjusted to produce a telephony tone receiver product (a tone-to-pulse converter for central office use based on Cowpland's Ph.D. thesis).

has also stated that the lawnmowers were not suited to Canadian lawns. Following the success of the tone receiver, the founders extended their interest in the telecommunications industry. Early on, the pair realized the significance of the then-new microprocessor and software technology to the design of telecom switches. In 1975, they introduced the SX200 PBX. The company grew at a rate of over 100% per year for several years. They reached the $100 million annual revenue mark by 1981. In 1976, the company expanded into the

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...

field with the acquisition of Siltex, a bankrupt ISO-

CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss", ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSF ...

foundry in

Bromont, Quebec Bromont is a city in southern Quebec, Canada, at the base of Mont Brome; it is in the Brome-Missisquoi Regional County Municipality. The Bromont area and its resort, Ski Bromont, is well known as a tourist destination for its downhill skiing, mo ...

. This evolved into a semiconductor division that specialized in mixed signal and

thick film Thick-film technology is used to produce electronic devices/modules such as surface mount devices modules, hybrid integrated circuits, heating elements, integrated passive devices and sensors. Main manufacturing technique is screen printing (stencil ...

hybrid devices. The next major product was a large digital PBX called the SX2000. This was an early attempt to integrate the voice and data functions of office systems. It was conceived as moving beyond the PBX to become an

Office Controller The office controller was a networking concept of the early to mid-1980s. The concept was used by PABX manufacturers as the basis of families of products in which the PBX would supply data connectivity and applications along with its traditional v ...

, which would handle both voice and data applications within an organization. In 1985, due to a financial crisis in the company, the board of directors created enough new shares to sell a

controlling interest A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting stock shares to prevail in any stockholders' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds less than the major ...

(51%) to

British Telecom BT Group plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, b ...

. British Telecom left the equipment business a few years later and sold its controlling interest in Mitel to an investment company called

Schroder Ventures Permira is a global investment firm. Founded in 1985, the firm advises funds with assets under management of €60+ billion. The Permira funds have made approximately 300 private equity investments in four key sectors: Technology, Consumer, S ...

. Schroeder Ventures installed new management, which revitalized the company. In the meantime, Mitel continued to diversify its product line, introducing the successful

SUPERSET In mathematics, set ''A'' is a subset of a set ''B'' if all elements of ''A'' are also elements of ''B''; ''B'' is then a superset of ''A''. It is possible for ''A'' and ''B'' to be equal; if they are unequal, then ''A'' is a proper subset of ...

line of phone terminals, the GX5000 Central Office, and the SMART-1 call controller, among others. Additionally, Mitel developed and marketed a line of telecom-focussed semiconductor products.

Splits

In 2001, Matthews paid US$230 million to acquire the communications network division of Mitel, along with the ''Mitel'' trademark. It began a new chapter, under the name Mitel Networks, by developing a family of PBXs based on Internet standards for Voice over IP (

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...

). The original company retained the semiconductor division. It was renamed

Zarlink Zarlink Semiconductor (acquired by Microsemi in October 2011, itself acquired by Microchip in March 2018) was a fabless semiconductor company specializing in the design and manufacture of communication and medical semiconductor integrated circui ...

(''Tsar of Links'') Semiconductor to reflect its interest in networking. Mitel Knowledge Corporation, also controlled by Matthews, was incorporated in 2001. Numerous patents were transferred to the company. It later evolved into MKC Networks, which made a family of SIP-based IP PBX systems. An additional split took place in 2002, when the manufacturing arm was spun off out of Mitel Networks to become a contract manufacturer called BreconRidge. With these developments, the original Mitel Corporation was split into three companies: Zarlink (which though renamed is the original corporate entity), Mitel Networks, and BreconRidge.

New IPO

On May 10, 2006, the new company announced its intention to launch an

Initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

(IPO). No detailed information was released, but the press indicated that the company hoped to raise $150 million. In April 2007, Mitel announced an agreement with Inter-Tel to purchase that company. This purchase would amount to a merger of equals, with the merged company being twice the size of the original Mitel. This acquisition was completed in August 2007. Management had announced that the companies will carry on under the name Mitel. As a result of the merger, Mitel withdrew from the IPO registration process. "Mitel Knowledge" (now as MKC Networks) and Mitel Networks were and are ultimately controlled by

. On April 22, 2010, Mitel became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...

, listed on

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

with the symbol MITL, and its initial offering stood at $14 per share. Within a year, the stock price had dropped to $5.50 and was described by CNBC's

Jim Cramer James Joseph Cramer (born February 10, 1955) is an American television personality and author. He is the host of ''Mad Money'' on CNBC and an anchor on ''Squawk on the Street''. A former hedge fund manager, founder, and senior partner of Crame ...

as one of the worst IPOs of the year. Cramer blamed excessively optimistic pricing, excessive debt and the fear that company insiders would sell, dropping the stock value. During the company's Q1 conference call, Don Smith (CEO) announced his retirement from the company once the board of directors is able to find a suitable replacement. Smith said he would remain on the board after retirement.

Acquisitions

In June 2013, Mitel announced the completion of acquisition of one of its key suppliers, prairieFyre Software Inc., a privately held global provider of contact center, business analytics, and workforce optimization software and services. The net cash cost to Mitel for the acquisition of prairieFyre is approximately $20 million. prairieFyre is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that has supplied Mitel with its existing contact center solution. In November 2013, Mitel announced the purchase of

Aastra Technologies Aastra Technologies Limited, formerly headquartered in Concord, Ontario, Canada, made products and systems for accessing communication networks, including the Internet. Its products included residential and business telephone terminals, screen ...

. On March 4, 2014, Mitel announced the acquisition of contact center supplier OAISYS, a leading developer of integrated call recording and quality management solutions. In March 2015, Mitel announced to buy Mavenir Systems for $560 million. In April 2016, Mitel announced its intention to buy

Polycom Poly, formerly Polycom, a part of HP Inc., is an American multinational corporation that develops video, voice and content collaboration and communication technology. Polycom was co-founded in 1990 by Brian L Hinman and Jeffrey Rodman. In 2018 ...

for $1.96 billion. The deal was intended to give existing Polycom shareholders both cash and new Mitel shares for their holdings and result in Polycom shareholders owning 60% of the combined company. The acquisition was ended in favour of a merger with Siris Capital instead, forcing

pay a US$60 million fee to Mitel for cancelling the deal. In July 2017, Mitel announced they had reached a deal to buy ShoreTel for $530 million, increasing the size of the company to approximately 4,200 employees.

Divestiture

On March 1, 2013, Mitel announced it has completed the sale of its DataNet CommSource business unit ("DataNet") in Sioux Falls to EarthBend, LLC. In December 2016 the company announced that it will sell its mobility unit for $385 million to Xura and that will focus its business on

Unified Communications Unified communications (UC) is a business and marketing concept describing the integration of enterprise communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, voice (including IP telephony), mobility features (including e ...

Going private

On November 30, 2018, Mitel announced that all the shares of Mitel were acquired by affiliates of funds advised by

. The shares ceased trading on the TSX and Nasdaq and were delisted.

After 2018

In April 2019, Mitel moved to merge with

Avaya Avaya Holdings Corp., often shortened to Avaya (), is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, that provides cloud communications and workstream collaboration services. The company's platform inclu ...

. The merger did not go through. In October 2019, Mitel’s CEO Richard McBee resigned. Mary McDowell became the new CEO. In May 2021, Mitel announced a partnership with Five9.

Litigation

In 2011, Mitel launched litigation against at least two Australian businesses for infringing on Mitel's trademark and the businesses for engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct under Australian

consumer law Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...

. The first case against Melbourne telecommunications company Mytel was resolved, while the second case brought against a chain of mobile phone accessory and repair stores under the MyTel and HappyTel name was still waiting to be heard.

Product lineup

Communications platforms (Cloud / Onsite PBX): Mitel's business phone systems provide call center, unified communications and cloud communications solutions. * MiVoice 5000 * MiCloud Connect * MiCloud Flex * MiCloud Telepo for Service providers * MiVoice Office 250 (formerly Office 5000) * MiVoice Office 400 (Primarily Hotel/Motel) * MiVoice Business (including virtual MiVoice Business (vMiVB)) * MiVoice Business Express * MiVoice Connect * MiVoice MX-One Session Border Controllers (Cloud / Onsite): Mitel's SBC acts as a security gateway between the company network and the Internet * MiVoice Border Gateway Applications (Contact Center and UC Apps): Mitel's contact center and collaboration applications. * MiCloud Contact Centers * MiContact Center Business / Enterprise * Teamwork * MiCollab * NuPoint Unified Messenger * MiCollab Advanced Messaging * Audio, Web and Video Conferencing Endpoints (Phones / Wireless): Mitel offers a range of SIP/IP and digital phones, consoles, conference phones and peripherals. * Desk phones for MiCloud / MiVoice Solutions (select models like 6900s, 5300s, 400s) * SIP phones for MiVoice solutions (6800s) * Digital phones (8500s & 4200s) * DECT Wireless solutions * SIP Wi-Fi handsets * MiCollab Client * TA7100 FXS adapters

References

{{Authority control Companies formerly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Companies based in Ottawa Canadian companies established in 1973 Telecommunications companies of Canada Telecommunications equipment vendors Telecommunications companies established in 1973 1973 establishments in Ontario VoIP companies of Canada Wesley Clover Canadian brands 2010 initial public offerings 2018 mergers and acquisitions Private equity portfolio companies Privately held companies of Canada Semiconductor companies of Canada