West Corporation and Smoothstone IP Communications jointly announced that they have entered into an agreement whereby West will acquire Smoothstone. The acquisition adds to West’s expanding unified communications business, which includes InterCall.

Smoothstone develops and delivers highly flexible and scalable solutions for clients’ next-generation IP telephony needs. As enterprises upgrade their voice and data infrastructure, Smoothstone offers software-driven applications that exist in the cloud and are delivered through a software-as-a-service model. Smoothstone applications and services reduce the costs, risks and uncertainties of deploying new IP technology. Smoothstone’s solutions combine to bring the benefits of unified IP communications to enterprises quickly and reliably.

Smoothstone was the recipient of Frost & Sullivan’s 2010 award for Competitive Strategy Innovation in Hosted IP Telephony and UC Services for North America. This prestigious award recognizes Smoothstone’s best-in-class strategy to manage growth, innovation and leadership in the dynamic IP communications market. Frost & Sullivan commented on the award by stating: “Smoothstone’s innovative competitive strategy has allowed it to service its customers in a very efficient and cost-effective manner. Through its unique technological platform and customized bundling solutions, as well as an extensive partner program, Smoothstone is poised to capture a growing share of this market.”

West will pay approximately $120 million to acquire Smoothstone. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2011 after satisfaction of certain closing conditions, including customary regulatory approvals. Upon completion of the acquisition, Smoothstone will become a part of West’s Unified Communications operating segment. The Smoothstone product portfolio will be available to West’s wide base of clients, adding cloud-based IP telephony to a growing list of West’s unified communications solutions. Smoothstone will continue to offer its full portfolio of applications and services and will continue in its mission to help leading enterprises transform the way they communicate.

Other benefits of the Smoothstone solution include:

• Faster deployment times compared to traditional, on-premises deployments
• Ongoing technology refresh that keeps up with a rapidly evolving UC market
• Ease of integration into business processes and enterprise applications
• Elimination of the burden of managing communications infrastructure and services, allowing resources to be focused on more strategic initiatives