Andy Hurt
Communications vendor Plantronics has made a move to rebrand its entity to Poly following the US$2 billion acquisition of Polycom last year.
In the Australian and New Zealand market, the merged entity will be led by managing director Andy Hurt, who will be responsible for bringing its extensive range of communications devices and services to the market.
Prior to joining Poly, Hurt was the director of sales, marketing and solutions for NEC Australia and has previously held a number of roles with Avaya, Honeywell and 3Com.
“Since joining in November, I’m proud to have been selected to lead the business in Australia and New Zealand, and have the opportunity to establish a new future for our customers, partners and employees in delivering a technology experience,” Hurt said.
“I’m delighted to be at the helm of an innovative company and one with such dedication to solving customer needs. Individually we’ve had a great history, but together as Poly we’ll have an even better future.”
The acquisition, announced in March last year, saw Polycom open up opportunities for Plantronics to delve further into communications and collaboration services, providing a broad portfolio of complementary products and services across the segment.
The unified communications market is estimated to be worth about US$39.9 billion, which is being driven by innovation in video, audio, data analytics and insight services.
In January, Plantronics entered an agreement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), paying US$36 million to settle an investigation into Polycom, after discovering evidence of "possible improper behaviour" by former employees at its China unit.
Plantronics said the incident happened prior to the video conferencing equipment maker going private in 2016.
The company said the SEC and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) were investigating into possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by Polycom.
According to SEC documents, from 2006 through at least 2 July 2014, Polycom’s vice president of China at Polycom’s China subsidiary, along with senior managers, provided significant discounts to Polycom’s distributors and/or resellers, knowing and intending that the distributors and/or resellers would use the discounts to make payments to officials at Chinese government agencies and government-owned enterprises in exchange for those officials’ assistance in obtaining orders for Polycom’s products.
