ShoreTel's IPO should elevate their competitive posture in enterprise VoIP

I consider them a leader in the Enterprise VoIP space.  ShoreTel 7 has some new features, including Programmable Toolbars that enable end users to execute telephony applications via the Personal Call Manager as well as the Contact Center.

There's also a new automated call forwarding functionality that permits repeated transfer of a message until it has been actually heard, as well as some additional end-user ring tones personalization capability.

Despite their impressive suite of services, ShoreTel is far from the largest player in this space. Cisco, Nortel and Avaya are all larger and with deeper pockets.

But yesterday, ShoreTel took a major step at boosting its resources. It registered its initial public offering (IPO) of 7.9 million common shares at an estimated price of $8.50 USD to $10.50 USD per share. The company said it hopes to raise more than $90 million, which would be intended in part for acquisitions.

I presume these acquisitions would be smaller players that could add to ShoreTel's already impressive feature set as well as its switches and other hardware inventory.

Look for an even more competitively energized ShoreTel rather soon.