Verizon Acquired BlueJeans in 2020, But It’s Shutting Down the Video App for Good
Key takeaways
- Verizon is shuttering video call app BlueJeans three years after buying it
- The platform once had a promising future as part of Verizon’s smart glasses venture with Google
- Verizon stock was up 0.9% thanks to news on its price increases
Womp womp. Verizon has called time on its video conference company BlueJeans, which it acquired in 2020, as it became clear people need video calls to continue working in lockdowns. Alas, it never really got off the ground and has now suffered an untimely demise. Here’s what we know and when users can expect the service to close permanently.
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What’s happening with BlueJeans?
RIP, BlueJeans: the video conferencing platform is shutting down in the coming months. In a mass email to all customers, Verizon confirmed it was sunsetting the app, which employs 500 people and had more than 15,000 customers when it was first bought in 2020.
The video conferencing software once had a promising future. Verizon partnered with Google to preload the BlueJeans app on the since-discontinued Verizon’s Glass Enterprise Edition 2 smart glasses, but it wasn’t meant to be.
BlueJeans recently introduced a free basic plan and a free trial to entice paying customers to the platform, but now those two offerings will end on August 31. There’s no word yet on when paying customers will exit stage left.
It’s unknown how much Verizon paid for BlueJeans at the height of the pandemic, but the figure is rumored to be in the $400 million region. If that’s the case, it’s a painful write-off for the telecoms company.
What was the market reaction?
The announcement didn’t really make any waves in Verizon’s stock price because, well, nobody had really heard of BlueJeans.
What did have an impact was Verizon announcing it was putting up its prices for the third time in two years. Starting from September customers will pay more for Verizon Mix and Match plans, having already pushed up prices for wireless home internet packages.
Verizon’s share price gained 0.9% during Thursday trading. So far in 2023 the stock has declined 17.6%.
The bottom line
It’s always sad when an acquisition doesn’t work out, but in the world of far more established video call platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, BlueJeans didn’t have much of a chance. For Verizon, it’s onto the next one.
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