Peter Leav at that point was both president and CEO, and Laura Durr was chief financial officer and executive vice president (EVP). Polycom reported revenues of $1.3 billion for the year of 2015. In 2015, Polycom cut 15% of its workforce after posting large dips in sales. The firm employed approximately 3,800 employees in 2014. He was succeeded as CEO by Peter Leav, who was then succeeded in 2016 by Mary McDowell following Polycom's acquisition by Siris Capital Group. Miller left Polycom after being paid $24 million USD in compensation.
At Polycom, Miller was with several expense and accounting violations by the SEC in 2012, and settled with the SEC by agreeing to not serve as an officer for any company for five years. Miller had built Tandberg into a significant competitor before being forced to resign. Polycom released this employee with a $300K settlement announced the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. The Board of Directors lost confidence in Hagerty after one of his closest associates was forced to resign due to leaking insider information over 5 years in the Galleon scandal. In 2011, Polycom posted $1.5 billion in revenue.īrian Hinman served as CEO from the company's founding in 1990 until 1998, when he was succeeded by Bob Hagerty. In January 1998, Polycom acquired ViaVideo for $54 million and its videoconferencing product, which would be named ViewStation. In 1997, the company began shipping ShowStation in addition to its growing line of audio products and had total revenues of $47 million. In April 1996, Polycom went public on NASDAQ. Polycom began the development of its first product in the new category of "Document Conferencing Projector", called ShowStation in 1994. SoundStation and its successor, SoundStation Premier became the leading brand in the market in the 1990s.
Its first product in 1992 was SoundStation, a triangular speakerphone with unusually robust full-duplex audio allowing both parties to simultaneously speak and be heard. The company later added content sharing, video conferencing, video network and bridging, and system monitoring and management products. Its first products to market were audio conferencing speakerphones. Polycom's stated goal was to develop solutions for all the major ways people communicate, specifically including audio, content such as documents, and video. Oak Investment Partners and Accel Partners then contributed an additional $3 million in venture capital.
The startup was based in San Francisco, California but soon moved to San Jose, California, with Hinman using $400,000 of his own money and $100,000 from friends as seed money. Polycom was co-founded in 1990 by Brian L Hinman and Jeffrey Rodman, who were colleagues at PictureTel Corp.