ARTICLE
On May 18, 1961, two pilots from Pacific Plantronics, out of a small garage in Santa Cruz, California, incorporated and dedicated themselves to the “design, development and manufacture of specialized aircraft electronics.” Breaking into the space race was the fantastic beginning for Plantronics as the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) was looking for proposals for “lightweight headsets” for their traffic controllers. In 1962 Plantronics introduced the first lightweight communication headset, the MS-50 to the commercial marketplace. United Airlines and Pacific Bell begin the rush to order these headsets. By 1967, Pacific Plantronics sales reached $5.4 million with 100,000 headsets in use. In 1968 the first Apollo mission relied on Plantronics headsets to communicate from space to Mother Earth, and in 1969 Neil Armstrong’s first words from the moon, “That’s one small step for man, one giant step for mankind” were transmitted via the Plantronics headset. The stage was set for this local Santa Cruz tech company to reach for the stars becoming the global communication leader for NSAA and the aviation industry. In 1969, Plantronics joined the Santa Cruz County Chamber and paved the way for other tech companies to be a part of our coastal community. Through the years, the Plantronics and Chamber partnership has helped the tech echo grow as the company supported local nonprofits in our coastal community. This tech echo system has seen the ebbs and flows of the growth of new technology from small startups to global leaders in their respective slices of the tech space. But one thing remained constant with Plantronics — they were a homegrown tech company dedicated to their technology and to Santa Cruz. By 1973 Plantronics had shipped its one-millionth headset and in 1977 was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Over the next two decades Plantronics continued to grow with worldwide operations, establishing office and manufacturing operations in Mexico, the UK and China and around the globe. Fast-forward to June 3, 2019, a few short months after Plantronics acquired Polycom, Poly’s VP of Brand and Corporate Design, Darrin Caddes was quoted in a storyline from Santa Cruz Works that highlighted the company’s mission: “We enabled all of those transmissions and communications between people on the ground in Houston and the astronauts in space,” stated Poly VP of Brand and Corporate Design Darrin Caddes. “Those headsets that enabled those transmissions from the moon were hand-built right here in Santa Cruz.” The Plantronics team joined forces with Polycom, a San Jose-based company that has grown from creating conference phones into creating better conferencing in a broader sense, including video conferencing. Together, the two companies formed Poly, and they have communication electronics covered. As is always the case when two companies merge into one, the question is: What is the future outlook and what is the new company’s identity? In that June 2019 interview, Caddes described the opportunity of the acquisition (merger) to create something entirely new and shed some legacy mindset as an organization and step into something where they really unite as a different company under the new umbrellas. Did the new company find a new vision and new model or did the acquisition splinter the past legacy from the use of a larger set of communication tools in a diversely changing world? On Monday, March 28, 2022, HP announced a definitive agreement to acquire Santa Cruz’s Poly in an all-cash deal for $40/share and a total enterprise value of $3.3 billion, which includes Poly’s net debt. In a Santa Cruz Sentinel news story, Dave Shull, Poly CEO and president, stated in the press release. “I am thrilled about the opportunity this represents for Poly, our employees, partners and customers. The combination gives us an opportunity to dramatically scale, reaching new markets and channels, supercharging our innovation with a like-minded partner. This transaction offers compelling and certain value for our shareholders and speaks to the hard work done by our teams to become a recognized leader in helping businesses everywhere meet the challenges of a generational disruption in the way people work.” The transaction is expected to close by end of calendar year 2022, subject to Poly stockholder approval, regulatory clearances and other satisfactions of customers’ closing conditions. When Plantronics rebranded as Poly, the company was already transitioning from personal audio to work-oriented products like meeting room speakers and video conferencing cameras. Only a handful of items (such as the Voyager headphone range) are designed with home use at least partly in mind. As it stands, HP already targets everyday users with its gaming-focused HyperX brand. Whatever HP's intentions, the buyout closes an important chapter in audio history. Plantronics was one of the first companies to produce Bluetooth headsets, and developed an early reputation as a go-to brand for hands-free calling. However, its attempts at competing with consumer heavyweights like Apple, Bose and Sony never really panned out. While Plantronics created well-made headphones and earbuds that sometimes undercut the competition on price, it never reached the level of hype that helped its rivals succeed. The 2018 acquisition of Polycom and the subsequent Poly rebrand was, in a sense, an acknowledgment that Plantronics' strength was in the office rather than at home. The unknown answers to questions about this HP acquisition will be speculation, rumor and historical perspective. Poly (Plantronics) has been a tech icon in Santa Cruz County for 60 years. It firmly established its roots here. When the name changed from Plantronics to Poly, you could sense more than a name change. In the last four years, the company has seen four different CEOs take the helm of the company. Longtime Santa Cruz Plantronics (Poly) employees were either let go, retired or moved away from the legacy company. Will the Poly brand be incorporated into the HP brand? Will HP maintain a Poly office in Santa Cruz? What will happen to the legacy company’s mission to support local charities? One thing is for certain, Plantronics (Poly’s) long independent streak is coming to an end.
On May 18, 1961, two pilots from Pacific Plantronics, out of a small garage in Santa Cruz, California, incorporated and dedicated themselves to the “design, development and manufacture of specialized aircraft electronics.”
Breaking into the space race was the fantastic beginning for Plantronics as the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) was looking for proposals for “lightweight headsets” for their traffic controllers.
In 1962 Plantronics introduced the first lightweight communication headset, the MS-50 to the commercial marketplace. United Airlines and Pacific Bell begin the rush to order these headsets. By 1967, Pacific Plantronics sales reached $5.4 million with 100,000 headsets in use.
In 1968 the first Apollo mission relied on Plantronics headsets to communicate from space to Mother Earth, and in 1969 Neil Armstrong’s first words from the moon, “That’s one small step for man, one giant step for mankind” were transmitted via the Plantronics headset. The stage was set for this local Santa Cruz tech company to reach for the stars becoming the global communication leader for NSAA and the aviation industry.
In 1969, Plantronics joined the Santa Cruz County Chamber and paved the way for other tech companies to be a part of our coastal community. Through the years, the Plantronics and Chamber partnership has helped the tech echo grow as the company supported local nonprofits in our coastal community. This tech echo system has seen the ebbs and flows of the growth of new technology from small startups to global leaders in their respective slices of the tech space. But one thing remained constant with Plantronics — they were a homegrown tech company dedicated to their technology and to Santa Cruz.
By 1973 Plantronics had shipped its one-millionth headset and in 1977 was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Over the next two decades Plantronics continued to grow with worldwide operations, establishing office and manufacturing operations in Mexico, the UK and China and around the globe.
Fast-forward to June 3, 2019, a few short months after Plantronics acquired Polycom, Poly’s VP of Brand and Corporate Design, Darrin Caddes was quoted in a storyline from Santa Cruz Works that highlighted the company’s mission: “We enabled all of those transmissions and communications between people on the ground in Houston and the astronauts in space,” stated Poly VP of Brand and Corporate Design Darrin Caddes. “Those headsets that enabled those transmissions from the moon were hand-built right here in Santa Cruz.”
The Plantronics team joined forces with Polycom, a San Jose-based company that has grown from creating conference phones into creating better conferencing in a broader sense, including video conferencing. Together, the two companies formed Poly, and they have communication electronics covered.
As is always the case when two companies merge into one, the question is: What is the future outlook and what is the new company’s identity? In that June 2019 interview, Caddes described the opportunity of the acquisition (merger) to create something entirely new and shed some legacy mindset as an organization and step into something where they really unite as a different company under the new umbrellas. Did the new company find a new vision and new model or did the acquisition splinter the past legacy from the use of a larger set of communication tools in a diversely changing world?
On Monday, March 28, 2022, HP announced a definitive agreement to acquire Santa Cruz’s Poly in an all-cash deal for $40/share and a total enterprise value of $3.3 billion, which includes Poly’s net debt. In a Santa Cruz Sentinel news story, Dave Shull, Poly CEO and president, stated in the press release. “I am thrilled about the opportunity this represents for Poly, our employees, partners and customers. The combination gives us an opportunity to dramatically scale, reaching new markets and channels, supercharging our innovation with a like-minded partner. This transaction offers compelling and certain value for our shareholders and speaks to the hard work done by our teams to become a recognized leader in helping businesses everywhere meet the challenges of a generational disruption in the way people work.” The transaction is expected to close by end of calendar year 2022, subject to Poly stockholder approval, regulatory clearances and other satisfactions of customers’ closing conditions.
When Plantronics rebranded as Poly, the company was already transitioning from personal audio to work-oriented products like meeting room speakers and video conferencing cameras. Only a handful of items (such as the Voyager headphone range) are designed with home use at least partly in mind. As it stands, HP already targets everyday users with its gaming-focused HyperX brand.
Whatever HP's intentions, the buyout closes an important chapter in audio history. Plantronics was one of the first companies to produce Bluetooth headsets, and developed an early reputation as a go-to brand for hands-free calling. However, its attempts at competing with consumer heavyweights like Apple, Bose and Sony never really panned out. While Plantronics created well-made headphones and earbuds that sometimes undercut the competition on price, it never reached the level of hype that helped its rivals succeed. The 2018 acquisition of Polycom and the subsequent Poly rebrand was, in a sense, an acknowledgment that Plantronics' strength was in the office rather than at home.
The unknown answers to questions about this HP acquisition will be speculation, rumor and historical perspective. Poly (Plantronics) has been a tech icon in Santa Cruz County for 60 years. It firmly established its roots here. When the name changed from Plantronics to Poly, you could sense more than a name change.
In the last four years, the company has seen four different CEOs take the helm of the company. Longtime Santa Cruz Plantronics (Poly) employees were either let go, retired or moved away from the legacy company. Will the Poly brand be incorporated into the HP brand? Will HP maintain a Poly office in Santa Cruz? What will happen to the legacy company’s mission to support local charities? One thing is for certain, Plantronics (Poly’s) long independent streak is coming to an end.