Putting people at the heart of hybrid work: Zoom to acquire Workvivo to bolster the employee experience offering

The employee communication and engagement platform will give Zoom customers new ways to keep employees informed, engaged, and connected in today’s hybrid work model

Zoom and Workvivo

Zoom announces intent to acquire Workvivo

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Behind work are workers. Real everyday people. People who work to live, not live to work. People who need a sense of belonging. It’s a simple concept that often gets forgotten as priorities and demands take over the workday.

With workforces looking much different than they did just a few years ago, leaders need to think differently to retain talent and maintain company culture. Today’s workforce is hybrid and distributed – with people working from home, in an office, at a remote location, on the frontlines of a retail floor or warehouse, as a pilot or flight attendant in an airplane, a nurse in a healthcare clinic, or anything in between. In fact, 70% of US employees are frontline workers. They are people who want to feel connected to their colleagues and leaders – no matter where they work. Engaging employees and driving culture through connection is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it’s imperative for success in today’s business environment.

Zoom is excited to announce the acquisition of Workvivo to extend Zoom’s platform and offer its customers new ways to keep employees informed, engaged, and connected.

Founded in 2017, Workvivo provides a modern, feature-rich employee experience platform, combining advanced internal communication and engagement tools, a social intranet, and an employee app, all blended into one central hub, forming the heart of a company’s digital ecosystem. Workvivo’s best-in-class offering has seen triple-digit growth in the last three years and is used and trusted by hundreds of customers worldwide, from SMBs to some of the world’s most well-known brands, including Liberty Mutual, Lululemon, Ryanair, Madison Square Garden, and Wynn Resorts.

“We are excited to welcome the Workvivo team to Zoom. The power of Workvivo employee experience platform, with its robust communications and engagement offering combined with Zoom’s all-in-one collaboration platform, allows organizations to fully unlock the potential of their employees and evolve their company culture in a hybrid world,” said Kelly Steckelberg, chief financial officer at Zoom. “Workvivo has set the standard for employee communications, helping businesses reach and engage millions of employees worldwide. Workvivo prioritizes ease-of-use and simplicity of design, offering the best user experience which is a perfect match to Zoom’s DNA.”

“Zoom’s rapid pace of innovation and the persistent dedication to building products with a human-first mindset is why we are most excited about joining the team,” said John Goulding, CEO and co-founder at Workvivo. “Our platform replaces outdated, clunky, internal communications tools with a vibrant, familiar social experience, and has a proven history of unparalleled levels of adoption. With Zoom, we can build great things together, make teamwork more meaningful, and extend collaboration beyond knowledge workers, allowing us to reach employees who have historically felt disconnected from the company.”

Workvivo UI
Workvivo is an employee experience platform designed to inform, engage and connect employees everywhere.

Workvivo is an employee experience platform designed to inform, engage and connect employees everywhere.

With this acquisition, Zoom continues its evolution to provide the best end-to-end collaboration platform focused on enabling modern work and powering the digital-first workplace.

Following the close of the transaction, Zoom plans to incorporate Workvivo’s capabilities into its platform to deliver a best-in-class, employee experience. Workvivo’s founders John Goulding and Joe Lennon, and the entire Workvivo team, will be instrumental in driving employee experience innovation strategy.

The transaction is expected to close in Q1 FY2024. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About Zoom
Zoom is an all-in-one intelligent collaboration platform that makes connecting easier, more immersive, and more dynamic for businesses and individuals. Zoom technology puts people at the center, enabling meaningful connections, facilitating modern collaboration, and driving human innovation through solutions like team chat, phone, meetings, omnichannel cloud contact center, smart recordings, whiteboard, and more, in one offering. Founded in 2011, Zoom is publicly traded (NASDAQ:ZM) and headquartered in San Jose, California. Get more info at zoom.com.

About Workvivo
Workvivo is an employee experience platform designed to inform, engage and connect employees everywhere. Workvivo works with organizations globally across multiple industries, including Bupa, TELUS International and Everton FC. Read more at www.workvivo.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking information related to Zoom and Workvivo and the acquisition of Workvivo by Zoom that involves substantial risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements in this communication include, among other things, statements regarding the potential benefits of the proposed transaction for Zoom, Workvivo and their respective customers, Zoom’s plans, objectives, expectations and intentions with respect to the proposed transaction, Zoom’s ability to offer the best end-to-end collaboration platform, the financial condition, results of operations and business of Zoom, and the anticipated closing of the proposed transaction. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “project,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “can,” “predict,” “potential,” “target,” “explore,” “continue,” or the negative of these terms, and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. By their nature, these statements are subject to numerous uncertainties and risks, including factors beyond our control, that could cause actual results, performance or achievement to differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the statements, including: risks related to the ability of Zoom to consummate the proposed transaction on a timely basis or at all, Zoom’s ability to successfully integrate Workvivo’s operations and personnel, Zoom’s ability to implement its plan, forecasts and other expectations with respect to Workvivo’s business after the completion of the transaction, the ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction, and continued uncertainty regarding the extent and duration of the impact of COVID-19 and the responses of government and private industry thereto, including the potential effect on Zoom’s user growth rate as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic tapers. Additional risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements described under the caption “Risk Factors” and elsewhere are in Zoom’s most recent filings with the SEC, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made and are based on information available to Zoom at the time those statements are made and/or management’s good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events. Zoom assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, except as required by law.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ed1d522c-0c14-4cdf-9ace-60dedc4803fe

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Zoom Public Relations
Candace Dean
press@zoom.us

Solvvy Public Relations
Eleanor O’Mahony
eleanor.omahony@workvivo.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8808322

Eskom teams working to reduce higher load shedding stages

State power utility, Eskom, says it is working hard to address the causes of persistent breakdowns at power stations and ensure that the higher stages of load shedding are reduced.

This as the power utility implemented Stage 6 load shedding this week going into the weekend.

Stage 5 is expected to be implemented between 5am and 4pm on Saturday, returning to Stage 6 between 4pm and 5am on Sunday morning.

Following that, Stage 4 will be implemented from 5am to 4pm on Sunday afternoon and return to Stage 6.

“Eskom regrets the escalation of load shedding to Stage 6 but would like to assure all South Africans that our personnel at the various power stations are working around the clock to bring units back online and at higher efficiencies as soon as possible.

“It is to be noted that load shedding is implemented as a last resort to maintain the stability of the national grid,” Eskom said.

The electricity provider explained that long term outages have worsened the strain on the grid and has removed some 3080MW from the power system – the equivalent of three stages of load shedding.

“Apart from other generation challenges, the current situation has been exacerbated by the loss of four major units, which are on extended outages.

“Units 1, 2 and 3 of Kusile Power Station are currently offline as a result of the failure of the Unit 1 flue gas duct on 22 October 2022. Work is underway to bring these units back online from November 2023.

“Unit 1 at Koeberg Power Station is currently on a long-term outage for maintenance and refuelling as well as the replacement of the steam generators and is expected to return to service on 6 August 2023,” Eskom said.

By Friday, the power utility had lost some 17 093MW of generating capacity due to breakdowns with a further 6392MW out on planned maintenance.

The electricity provider emphasised that the “root causes” of these breakdowns are being addressed through the Generation Recovery Programme.

“Eskom continues to drive generation recovery initiatives which are aimed at preventing the current performance from deteriorating in the short term and improving the overall performance of the generation fleet in the long term.

“There have been some improvements recently, including several power stations achieving an energy availability of 70% in March as well as the suspension of load shedding on some days,” the group said.

Eskom maintained that it “does not want to implement load shedding if at all possible” but warned that with the power system under “severe pressure” the possibility of load shedding still remains.

“The cold front expected this weekend is anticipated to further increase the demand for electricity, adding to the capacity constraints, especially at evening peak hours from 5pm until 9pm. This can be alleviated if all consumers switch of heating and high consumption appliances during the peak hours.

“We thank those South Africans who heed the call to use electricity sparingly and help to alleviate the pressure on the power system,” Eskom said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

President urges senior public servants to accelerate implementation

President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged government’s Directors General (DGs) and Deputy Directors Generals to take tangible actions to deliver on their mandates more effectively.

The President held a meeting with the senior government officials on Friday in Pretoria to discuss the continued and accelerated implementation of government’s key priority areas.

“It is urgent that we narrow the gulf between priority setting and effective execution. And in doing so our focus must not be on setting unrealistic goals that cannot possibly be achieved in less than a year, but on a few tangible actions that can move the needle, and meaningfully so.

“The time for half-measures and heel dragging is over. It is time for decisive actions that will lift this country above the many crises we have faced over the course of this administration. It is time for high-impact, measurable interventions that will make an actual difference,” President Ramaphosa said.

In a statement, the Presidency said the meeting with the government leaders “covered a wide range of issues that are currently undermining the effectiveness of government”.

“President Ramaphosa expressed concern at the targets that are being missed and implementation failures that continue to cause a credibility deficit for the government.

“The rise of adverse audit outcomes and the failure to arrest them with urgency was identified as leadership weakness that undercuts the progress that government is making in rebuilding the upper ranks of the Public Service. The meeting further reflected on processes of filling vacancies that are moving at a snail’s pace in many departments, causing inefficiencies and complete paralysis,” the statement read.

Moving forward, the Presidency said, clusters will be expected to provide detail on how they will be addressing outstanding actions.

“The Department of Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation will provide data sets to assist clusters evaluate progress in implementing the MTSF 2019 to 2024, as well as all State of the Nation commitments since 2019.

“Importantly, the President further directed that public communication must be strengthened for

increased public accountability,” the statement said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Côte d’Ivoire-AIP/ Le conseil régional du Sud-Comoé offre des vivres aux cantines scolaires et des intrants aux paysans de la région

Le conseil régional du Sud-Comoé a offert 15 tonnes de vivres d’une valeur de 20 millions de francs CFA à 35 cantines scolaires et 29 tonnes d’intrants d’une valeur de 8,9 millions de francs CFA aux paysans de la région, lors de sa 2e session qui s’est tenue vendredi 14 avril 2023 à la salle Jean Baptiste Mockey de Grand-Bassam.

Réceptionnant les vivres des mains du président du conseil régional du Sud-Comoé, Aka Aouélé, le représentant du directeur des directions des cantines scolaires, Sey Bi, a dit sa joie tout en remerciant le conseil régional pour cet important don.

Il a, également, fait savoir que le conseil régional du Sud-Comoé est un partenaire incontournable de l’éducation nationale par le biais de dons et de réalisation d’infrastructures éducatives.

Quant aux 29 tonnes d’intrants dont a bénéficié le conseil régional du Sud-Comoé de la part de l’agence pour le développement de la filière riz (ADERIZ), pour les paysans de la région, ils sont constitués selon le directeur à l’appui à la production à l’ADERIZ, Kouamé Bi, de quatre tonnes de semences de riz C26, de 10 tonnes d’engrais urée et de 15 tonnes de NPK pour une superficie de 100 ha.

Source: Agence Ivoirienne de Presse

Côte d’Ivoire-AIP/ Des élèves de Sikensi sensibilisés sur le phénomène de la drogue

Le diplomate de carrière, Marcel Laubouet, a animé mercredi 5 avril 2023, une conférence au lycée municipal de Sikensi au cours de laquelle il a sensibilisé les élèves de l’établissement sur les dangers de la drogue.

M. Laubouet a prodigué des conseils et recommandé aux apprenants des méthodes pour éviter de consommer la drogue. Il s’exprimait à l’occasion de la journée de sensibilisation des élèves et des personnels du lycée sur le civisme en lien avec les activités de la vie scolaire organisées à la veille des congés de Pâques.

Le diplomate, au vu des résultats insuffisants des élèves, a également abordé des questions en rapport avec le vécu quotidien des enfants et proposé des solutions motivantes en vue de l’amélioration de leur résultats scolaires et leur épanouissement.

Il a été soutenu par d’autres acteurs de l’éducation notamment le coach en motivation scolaire et professeur de physique-chimie au lycée Mamie Faitai de Bingerville, Gnandré Moïse.

Les élèves ont été aussi édifiés par le témoignage d’une ancienne victime de la drogue, Ange Emmanuel. Ce dernier, aujourd’hui cadre dans une entreprise du pays, a révélé avoir abandonné la drogue et exhorté le public à se détourner des substances nocives pour la santé.

Le représentant du maire de Sikensi, Gnankou Yao Kouman et le proviseur du lycée hôte, Diomandé Zibo Sopoudé, ont pour leur part demandé aux élèves d’appliquer les conseils reçus afin de préserver leur existence de la drogue et privilégier leurs études.

Des communications sur le civisme routier ainsi que des prestations et des sketchs animés par des élèves et les membres du club santé du lycée, ont meublé la journée de sensibilisation dans l’établissement.

Source: Agence Ivoirienne de Presse

Côte d’Ivoire-AIP/ Conflit foncier Sikensi-Dabou: Le député de Sikensi réaffirme l’attachement du peuple Abidji à la paix

Le député-maire de Sikensi, N’Gata Brié Joseph, a réaffirmé l »‘attachement » du peuple Abidji à la paix, suite à un conflit foncier survenu en janvier entre ses « parents » et les habitants de Cosrou, localité située dans le département de Dabou.

L’honorable N’Gata s’exprimait, mardi 21 mars 2023, à l’occasion d’une mission en lien avec l’événement, effectué par le ministre de la réconciliation et de la cohésion nationale, Kouadio Konan Bertin dit KKB, à Bécédi, village de la commune de Sikensi. Près d’une dizaine des fils de Bécédi ont été arrêtés et sont détenus à la prison de Dabou après les heurts enregistrés à Cosrou.

M. N’Gata a rassuré l’assistance que les liens de fraternité entre Abidji et Adjoukrou seront maintenus en dépit de « l’incident » ayant bouleversé leurs « rapports fraternels ».

« Les Adjoukrou restent nos frères et rien ne doit nous séparer », a-t-il déclaré.

Toutefois le député a déploré l’attribution de « vastes superficies » de forêts du département de Sikensi déclassées en 1962, à des personnes autres que les populations riveraines. Cette situation, selon l’élu, conjuguée à la croissance démographique et la politique de retour des nationaux à la terre, a engendré la recrudescence des problèmes fonciers dans le département, notamment dans les massifs forestiers dénommés « Mené », « Kavi », « Kpêbo » et « Mâffê ».

M. N’Gata, relevant le « désarroi » de ses parents, causé par les décisions antérieures, a souhaité le « rafraîchissement » des limites des forêts déclassées dont ils sont riverains, à l’effet de leur permettre de disposer de « terres de subsistance » pour le bien-être de leurs familles.

Le porte-parole des populations de Sikensi a tenu à souligner la nécessité de préserver la paix, une « richesse commune » de son peuple, en présence du représentant du ministre Gouverneur des Grands ponts, Abo Kouamé Faustin, de celui du président du conseil régional de l’Agneby-Tiassa, Edima N’Guessan Emmanuel et du préfet de région de l’Agneby-Tiassa, Coulibaly Sihindou,

Le ministre Kouadio Konan Bertin a dit prendre bonnes notes des préoccupations émises et promis d’organiser une rencontre de haut niveau entre les élus, cadres et autorités administratives des localités touchées par la crise foncière, en vue de trouver des solutions pour le bonheur des peuples de Sikensi et de Dabou.

Source: Agence Ivoirienne de Presse