Day: July 19, 2021

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US Charges 4 Chinese Nationals in Hacking Campaign

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Justice Department on Monday announced charges against three Chinese intelligence officers and a Chinese computer hacker in connection with an unlawful cyber campaign that pilfered trade secrets and confidential information from dozens of companies, universities and government entities in the United States and 11 other countries between 2011 and 2018.
The theft included information about sensitive technologies, that was “of significant economic benefit to China’s companies and commercial sectors,” the department said, adding that the hackers targeted research institutes and universities to steal infectious-disease research on Ebola, MERS, and HIV/AIDS.
Like the closely related Ebola virus, the Marburg virus can cause massive internal bleeding, organ failure, fever, shock and delirium, and usually death. Tularemia is a potentially fatal bacterial disease found in rabbits. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people could become exposed through bioterrorism.
The announcement came as the administration of President Joe Biden and its allies formally attributed a massive cyberattack on the Microsoft Exchange Server email software earlier this year to hackers tied to China’s Ministry of State Security.

“These criminal charges once again highlight that China continues to use cyber-enabled attacks to steal what other countries make, in flagrant disregard of its bilateral and multilateral commitments,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said in a statement.
Prosecutors identified the three intelligence officers as Ding Xiaoyang, Cheng Qingmin, and Zhu Yunmin, saying they served in the Hainan State Security Department (HSSD), a provincial arm of China’s Ministry of State Security. The computer hacker was identified as Wu Shurong.
In an indictment unsealed Friday, prosecutors alleged that the three intelligence officers coordinated with staff and professors at various Chinese universities to carry out the campaign. The universities helped the Chinese spy agency to identify and recruit hackers and linguists, they said.
To hide the Chinese government’s role in the cyber campaign, the four defendants and other Chinese intelligence operatives established a front company, Hainan Xiandun Technology Development Co., Ltd, prosecutors said. The company has since been disbanded.
In addition to organizations in the United States, the hacking campaign targeted victims in Austria, Cambodia, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, prosecutors said.
“The breadth and duration of China’s hacking campaigns, including these efforts targeting a dozen countries across sectors ranging from health care and biomedical research to aviation and defense, remind us that no country or industry is safe,” Monaco said. “Today’s international condemnation shows that the world wants fair rules, where countries invest in innovation, not theft.”
In recent years, the Justice Department has charged dozens of Chinese nationals with espionage and cyberattacks.
The Chinese government has long denied U.S. allegations that it carries out cyberattacks against the United States.
The U.S. and its Western allies accused the Ministry of State Security of using “contract hackers” to carry out a wide range of cyberattacks including ransomware attacks targeting companies in exchange for millions of dollars in ransom. They specifically blamed China for the cyberattack in March that affected tens of thousands of organizations via Microsoft Exchange servers.

“The United States and countries around the world are holding the People’s Republic of China (PRC) accountable for its pattern of irresponsible, disruptive, and destabilizing behavior in cyberspace, which poses a major threat to our economic and national security,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
The public attribution is likely to strain already sour relations between Washington and Beijing and comes at a time when U.S. officials continue to sound the alarm about Chinese cyber espionage activities as part of Beijing’s campaign to supplant the United States as the world’s only superpower.
An advisory released on Monday by the FBI, the National Security Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said Chinese state-sponsored malicious cyber activity is “a major threat to U.S. and Allied cyberspace assets.”
“Chinese state-sponsored cyber actors aggressively target U.S. and allied political, economic, military, educational, and critical infrastructure (CI) personnel and organizations to steal sensitive data, critical and emerging key technologies, intellectual property, and personally identifiable information (PII),” the joint advisory said.
The U.S. views China as “a prolific and effective cyber-espionage threat” and says it “possesses substantial cyber-attack capabilities,” according to the U.S. intelligence community’s latest threat assessment released in April.

Source: Voice of America

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Cambodia Provides COVID-19 Aid To Neighbouring Vietnam

Cambodia today donated medical supplies and equipment, as well as, financial aid to neighbouring Vietnam, to help the country fight COVID-19, a health official said.
Health Ministry secretary of state, Yok Sambath, who brought the donations to Vietnam, via a special flight, said, the donations included one million face masks, 100,000 N95 masks, 100 automatic oxygen concentrators, and 350,000 U.S. dollars.
“The donations are to assist Vietnam to prevent the spread of COVID-19, especially a severe community outbreak in Ho Chi Minh City,” she told reporters, at the Phnom Penh international airport, before departure.
“The donations are a humanitarian gesture and represent our spirit of friendship and solidarity in the fight against COVID-19,” she added.
Vietnam reported 5,926 new cases yesterday, including 4,692 in Ho Chi Minh City, pushing the national total caseload to 53,830, with 254 deaths, according to its health ministry.–

Source: NAM News Network

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Cambodia Destroys 7.62 Tonnes Of Drugs, Illegal Substances To Mark Anti-Drug Day

Cambodia today burned 7.62 tonnes of drugs and illegal substances, to mark the International Day against Drug, officials said.
Gen. Chuon Sovann, vice chairman of the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), set fire on the drugs at a ceremony held on the southern outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh.
Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s prosecutor, Chreng Khmao, said, the destruction of the drugs clearly demonstrated the kingdom’s firm commitment to combating all kinds of illicit drugs. “The courts won’t tolerate any drug criminals. We’ll punish them severely.”
He said, the drugs, including heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, ketamine and nimetazepam, among others, had been seized from criminals in Phnom Penh and four provinces, namely Svay Rieng, Kampong Chhnang, Prey Veng, and Takeo.
The country has no death sentence for drug traffickers. Under its law, someone found guilty of trafficking more than 80 grams of drugs could be jailed for life.
According to the NACD, during the Jan-Jun period of 2021, the authorities had arrested 7,259 drug suspects, in 3,258 cases, confiscating more than 850 kilograms of illicit drugs

Source: NAM News Network

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Zoom to Acquire Five9

The combination of Zoom’s robust communications platform with Five9’s intelligent cloud contact center will enable organizations to reimagine the way they engage with their customers

SAN JOSE, Calif. and SAN RAMON, Calif., July 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Five9, Inc. (NASDAQ: FIVN), a leading provider of the intelligent cloud contact center, in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $14.7 billion. Combining Five9’s Contact Center as a Service (“CCaaS”) solution with Zoom’s broad communications platform will transform how businesses connect with their customers, building the customer engagement platform of the future.

The acquisition is expected to help enhance Zoom’s presence with enterprise customers and allow it to accelerate its long-term growth opportunity by adding the $24 billion contact center market. Five9 is a pioneer of cloud-based contact center software. Its highly-scalable and secure cloud contact center delivers a comprehensive suite of easy-to-use applications that allows management and optimization of customer interactions across many different channels.

“We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our platform, and the addition of Five9 is a natural fit that will deliver even more happiness and value to our customers,” said Eric S. Yuan, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Zoom. “Zoom is built on a core belief that robust and reliable communications technology enables interactions that build greater empathy and trust, and we believe that holds particularly true for customer engagement. Enterprises communicate with their customers primarily through the contact center, and we believe this acquisition creates a leading customer engagement platform that will help redefine how companies of all sizes connect with their customers. We are thrilled to join forces with the Five9 team, and I look forward to welcoming them to the Zoom family.”

“Businesses spend significant resources annually on their contact centers, but still struggle to deliver a seamless experience for their customers,” said Rowan Trollope, Chief Executive Officer of Five9. “It has always been Five9’s mission to make it easy for businesses to fix that problem and engage with their customers in a more meaningful and efficient way. Joining forces with Zoom will provide Five9’s business customers access to best-of-breed solutions, particularly Zoom Phone, that will enable them to realize more value and deliver real results for their business. This, combined with Zoom’s ‘ease-of use’ philosophy and broad communication portfolio, will truly enable customers to engage via their preferred channel of choice.”

Zoom’s acquisition of Five9 is complementary to the growing popularity of its Zoom Phone offering. Zoom Phone is a modern, cloud phone system that offers a digital alternative to legacy phone offerings, enabling organizations to connect and interact in new and convenient ways to keep businesses moving.

The combination also offers both companies significant cross-selling opportunities to each other’s respective customer bases. As a result of the acquisition, Zoom will play an even greater role in driving the digital future and bringing companies and their customers closer together.

Following the close of the transaction, Five9 will be an operating unit of Zoom and Rowan Trollope will become a President of Zoom and continue as CEO of Five9, reporting to Eric Yuan.

Details on the Proposed Transaction
As part of the agreement, Five9 stockholders will receive 0.5533 shares of Class A common stock of Zoom Video Communications, Inc. for each share of Five9, Inc. Based on the closing share price of Zoom Class A common stock as of July 16, 2021, this represents a per share price for Five9 common stock of $200.28 and an implied transaction value of approximately $14.7 billion.

The Boards of Directors of Zoom and Five9 have approved the transaction. The Board of Directors of Five9 recommends that Five9 stockholders approve the transaction and adopt the merger agreement. The transaction, which is anticipated to close in the first half of calendar year 2022, is subject to approval by Five9 stockholders, the receipt of required regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Additional details and information about the terms and conditions of the acquisition will be available in current reports on Form 8-K to be filed by Zoom and Five9 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Advisors
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor and Cooley LLP is serving as legal counsel to Zoom. Qatalyst Partners is serving as exclusive financial advisor and Latham and Watkins LLP is serving as legal counsel to Five9.

Transaction Conference Call Information
Zoom and Five9 will host a Zoom Video Webinar for investors on Monday, July 19, 2021 at 5:30 am Pacific Time / 8:30 am Eastern Time. Investors are invited to join the Zoom Video Webinar by visiting: https://investors.zoom.us/. A replay will be available shortly after the call ends.

About Zoom
Zoom is for you. We help you express ideas, connect to others, and build toward a future limited only by your imagination. Our frictionless communications platform is the only one that started with video as its foundation, and we have set the standard for innovation ever since. That is why we are an intuitive, scalable, and secure choice for individuals, small businesses, and large enterprises alike. Founded in 2011, Zoom is publicly traded (NASDAQ: ZM) and headquartered in San Jose, California. Visit zoom.com and follow @zoom.

About Five9
Five9 is an industry-leading provider of cloud contact center solutions, bringing the power of cloud innovation to more than 2,000 customers worldwide and facilitating billions of customer engagements annually. The Five9 Intelligent Cloud Contact Center provides digital engagement, analytics, workflow automation, workforce optimization, and practical AI to help customers reimagine their customer experience. Designed to be reliable, secure, compliant, and scalable, the Five9 platform helps increase agent and supervisor productivity, connects the contact center to the business, and ultimately deliver tangible business results including increased revenue and enhanced customer trust and loyalty.

Forward-Looking Statements
This communication contains forward-looking information related to Zoom, Five9 and the acquisition of Five9 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 about the potential benefits of the proposed transaction for Zoom, Five9 and their respective customers, Zoom’s plans, objectives, expectations and intentions with respect to the combined company, the size of the opportunity for Zoom in contact centers, the financial condition, results of operations and business of Zoom or Five9, and the anticipated timing of closing of the proposed transaction.

Risks and uncertainties include, among other things, 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 Five9’s operations and personnel; Zoom’s ability to implement its plan, forecasts and other expectations with respect to Five9’s business after the completion of the transaction and realize expected synergies; the satisfaction of the conditions precedent to consummation of the proposed transaction; Zoom’s ability to secure regulatory approvals on the terms expected in a timely manner or at all, especially in light of recent regulatory developments in the United States and elsewhere; the ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction, including the possibility that the expected benefits from the proposed transaction will not be realized or will not be realized within the expected time period; disruption from the transaction making it more difficult to maintain business and operational relationships; any negative effects of the announcement or the consummation of the proposed transaction on the market price of Zoom’s Class A common stock or on Zoom’s operating results; the impact of significant transaction costs and unknown liabilities on Zoom’s operating results; the risk of litigation and/or regulatory actions related to the proposed transaction; the exertion of management’s time and Zoom’s resources, and other expenses incurred in connection with any regulatory or governmental consents or approvals for the transaction; the possibility that competing offers will be made to acquire Five9; the effect of the announcement or pendency of the transaction on Zoom and Five9’s business relationships, operating results, and business generally; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health measures on Zoom and Five9’s businesses and general economic conditions; the impact of geopolitical events; Zoom’s service performance and security, including the resources and costs required to avoid unanticipated downtime and prevent, detect and remediate potential security breaches; cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities that could lead to reduced revenue, increased costs, liability claims, or harm to Zoom’s reputation or competitive position; excessive outages and disruptions to Zoom’s online services if Zoom fails to maintain an adequate operations infrastructure; competitive factors, including new market entrants and changes in the competitive environment and increased competition; customer demand for Zoom’s products and services; Zoom and Five9’s ability to attract, integrate and retain qualified personnel; Zoom’s ability to protect its intellectual property rights and develop its brand; Zoom’s ability to develop new services and product features; Zoom’s operating results and cash flow; the impact of the transaction on Zoom’s strategy of acquiring or making investments in complementary businesses, joint ventures, services, technologies and intellectual property rights; changes in tax and other laws, regulations, rates and policies; and the impact of new accounting pronouncements.

These risks, as well as other risks related to the proposed transaction, will be described in the registration statement on Form S-4 and proxy statement/prospectus that will be filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction. While the list of factors presented here is, and the list of factors to be presented in the registration statement on Form S-4 are, considered representative, no such list should be considered to be a complete statement of all potential risks and uncertainties. For additional information about other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Zoom’s and Five9’s respective periodic reports and other filings with the SEC, including the risk factors identified in Zoom’s and Five9’s most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Reports on Form 10-K.

The forward-looking statements included in this communication are made only as of the date hereof. Zoom assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Additional Information and Where to Find It

In connection with the proposed merger, Zoom intends to file with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-4, which will include a document that serves as a prospectus of Zoom and a proxy statement of Five9 (the “proxy statement/prospectus”). After the registration statement has been declared effective by the SEC, the proxy statement/prospectus will be delivered to stockholders of Five9. BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING OR INVESTMENT DECISION, SECURITY HOLDERS OF ZOOM AND FIVE9 ARE URGED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS (INCLUDING ALL AMENDMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) AND OTHER DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE MERGER THAT WILL BE FILED WITH THE SEC WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED MERGER. Investors and security holders will be able to obtain copies of the proxy statement/prospectus (when available) and other documents filed by Zoom and Five9 with the SEC, without charge, through the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Zoom will be available free of charge under the SEC Filings heading of the Investor Relations section of Zoom’s website at https://investors.Zoom.us/. Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Five9 will be available free of charge under the Financials & Filings heading of the Investor Relations section of Five9’s website at https://investors.five9.com/.

Participants in the Solicitation

Zoom and Five9 and their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in respect of the proposed transaction. Information about Zoom’s directors and executive officers is set forth in Zoom’s Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2021 and the proxy statement for Zoom’s 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which were filed with the SEC on March 18, 2021 and May 5, 2021, respectively. Information about Five9’s directors and executive officers is set forth in Five9’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and the proxy statement for Five9’s 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which were filed with the SEC on March 1, 2021 and March 29, 2021, respectively. Stockholders may obtain additional information regarding the interests of such participants by reading the registration statement and the proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC regarding the proposed merger when they become available. Investors should read the proxy statement/prospectus carefully when it becomes available before making any voting or investment decisions.

No Offer or Solicitation

This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Zoom Press Relations
Colleen Rodriguez
Global Media Relations Lead
press@zoom.us

Zoom Investor Relations
Tom McCallum
Head of Investor Relations
investors@zoom.us

Five9 Press Relations
Allison Wilson
352-502-9539
allison.wilson@five9.com

Five9 Investor Relations
Barry Zwarenstein
Chief Financial Officer
925-201-2000 ext. 5959
ir@five9.com

The Blueshirt Group for Five9, Inc.
Lisa Laukkanen
415-217-4967
lisa@blueshirtgroup.com

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