Zoom has announced a plan to raise $1.75 billion (roughly £1.28 billion) for an underwritten public offering, which it expects to close on Friday. 

The price of the secondary share sale puts the company’s stock value up 10 times above where it debuted in 2019.

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In connection with the offering, Zoom has granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 735,294 shares of its Class A common stock at the public offering price. It is now assuming a share price of £337.71 based on Monday’s closing value. US bank J.P. Morgan will act as the sole book-running manager for the offering.

It is thought that the secondary sale will provide the company with more capital to make acquisition deals more attractive to potential targets. The firm has said it may use a portion of its net proceeds for “acquisitions and strategic investments”. 

The video conferencing platform is seen as the breakout service of 2020, with mass adoption and 355% growth fueled by the greater need to work remotely. Alongside its IPO announcement, Zoom has also revealed that it sold one million Zoom Phone seats just before the product’s second anniversary. 

Zoom Phone is a core service in the company’s unified communications platform, along with Zoom Meetings, Zoom Chat, Zoom Rooms, and Zoom Video Webinars. It comes with features such as centralised management, contact centre integration, and global call routing.

Within the two-years that it has been generally available, it’s now used in dozens of countries and territories around the world.

“We are excited to see this level of uptake in such a short timeframe,” said Graeme Geddes, head of Zoom Phone. “Our customers have come to rely on Zoom to deliver amazing video and audio for them at scale, and they’re seeing tremendous value in consolidating and modernising their telephony services with us as well. This milestone really speaks to the level of trust we have built with our customers.”

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