RingCentral CEO Vlad Shmunis Is Now A Billionaire After Striking Deal With Avaya
.jpg)
Ukrainian-born entrepreneur Vlad Shmunis is now a billionaire, thanks to a recent deal inked by RingCentral, his cloud-based communications company. RingCentral, based in Belmont, California, provides phone, messaging, video conferencing and other collaboration services for businesses.
On October 3, RingCentral announced it would partner with Avaya, a telecommunications equipment provider, on a new cloud platform. RingCentral will pay $500 million to Avaya, including an advance of $375 million—mostly in RingCentral stock—for future payments and licensing rights as well as a $125 million investment of preferred equity for a 6% stake in Avaya.
Wall Street embraced the deal, which gives RingCentral access to Avaya’s 100 million users—compared with RingCentral’s 2 million—and helps Avaya pay down its considerable debt. The price of shares of Avaya and RingCentral increased by 30.7% and 28%, respectively, in the wake of the announcement. While Avaya’s stock peaked on October 9, RingCentral is still riding high. Its share price closed at $170.17 today, up 40.3% since the announcement. RingCentral’s market cap stands at $14.1 billion.
Shmunis, who serves as CEO, is now worth $1.3 billion by Forbes’ estimate, with an 8.5% stake of RingCentral plus options. His co-founder and CTO Vlad Vendrow owns approximately $600 million worth of stock, according to the company’s latest proxy. (RingCentral declined to comment for this article.)
Shmunis and his family immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s. After graduating from San Francisco State University with a master’s degree in computer science, he took an engineering job at a Silicon Valley startup. “I fairly quickly figured out that as far as a software developer I was okay,” Shmunis told a Forbes contributor in 2017. “But I was pretty good at understanding what customers wanted and what engineers could feasibly deliver and moved into the technical management ranks fairly early in life.”
Before launching RingCentral, Shmunis founded Ring Zero Systems, an enterprise communications software company, in 1992. Ring Zero was acquired by Motorola in 1998 for an undisclosed sum. Shmunis launched RingCentral in 1999 with Vendrow, who was previously an engineer at RingZero and Motorola. They took the RingCentral public in 2013.
source forbes
Industry: Unified Communications
Latest Jobs
-
- Senior Presales Consultant | Managed Security Services | London
- London
- N/A
-
Senior Presales Consultant – Managed Security Services Location: London-commutable (Hybrid) A well-established cyber consultancy is seeking a Senior Presales Consultant to drive growth across its managed security services / advisory portfolio. This hybrid role bridges commercial and technical expertise supporting solution design, shaping customer proposals, and guiding conversations from scoping through to delivery. Key experience: Background in managed security services, including SOC operations and threat detection Strong knowledge of cloud and on-prem security tooling (SIEM, EDR, IAM) Penetration testing Proven ability to translate technical concepts into clear business value Confident in customer-facing engagements and pre-sales delivery Experience contributing to bids, proposals, and RFI/RFP responses To find out more contact me on 07884666351 Visa sponsorship is unfortunately not available for this role.
-
- Senior SOC Engineer - Microsoft | Splunk. Permanent. London
- London
- N/A
-
Senior SOC Engineer – Hybrid London Type: Full-Time A well-established cyber security provider is seeking a Senior SOC Engineer to strengthen its managed services function. This role is ideal for someone with a strong operational background in SIEM and EDR tools who can confidently lead customer onboarding, fine-tune detection strategies, and act as a senior point of contact for technical escalations. You will need to be SC clearable. Bonus points if you have SC clearance currently. You will be responsible for ensuring smooth integration of new clients into the service, optimising alerting capabilities and delivering meaningful outcomes during investigations. This is a hands-on position, working closely with internal teams and external stakeholders to maintain robust security operations across multiple environments. Prior experience in a cyber-focused MSP or MSSP Strong hands-on capability with platforms such as Microsoft Sentinel, Defender for Endpoint, or similar Proficiency in scripting and query languages such as KQL or PowerShell Knowledge of detection logic, investigation workflows, and cloud-based infrastructure Confident communicator with strong documentation and reporting skills Apply today for more information.