ShoreTel has hired JP Morgan to advise it on strategic alternatives that could include a sale of the company. A group of independent board members, including the newly appointed member Marjorie Bowen, will look at options for the unified communications company.
CEO Don Joos said the company continued to grow its cloud business and was seeing "more and larger opportunities. To continue to ensure we are well positioned to maximize the opportunity ahead of us, we believe this is the right time to review the options for the next phase of the company's growth."
The alternatives to be evaluated will include, but are not be limited to: a company sale, the divestiture or acquisition of assets, licensing agreements, a realignment of operations, joint ventures and partnerships and a continuation of the current strategic plan. ShoreTel said it does not intend to comment further until the review process is completed.
ShoreTel made the announcement alongside its latest quarterly results, for the the fiscal fourth quarter to June. These showed revenue little changed year-on-year at USD 94.6 million, while the net result moved to a loss of USD 0.7 million from a profit of USD 4.7 million.
The company said it expects its hosted revenue to exceed product revenue in the coming year. The total number of installed customer seats increased 29 percent over the past year to 231,000. Over the full year, product revenue fell 13 percent to USD 158.2 million, while hosted revenue was up 20 percent to USD 126.7 million.
