Since this article was first published, Five9 has confirmed its restructure in a statement to CX Today. It read:
As part of our ongoing efforts to better align our business with strategic priorities and our current sales strategy, we have made the decision to reduce the size of our executive staff and realign certain areas of our organization. We thank the leaders involved for their contributions and commitment during their time at Five9. The teams remain focused on our long-term vision and the continued success of our employees, customers, partners, and stakeholders.
Five9 has ousted three senior executives, a person familiar with the matter has told CX Today.
Niki Hall, Chief Marketing Officer, Jim Doran, EVP of Corporate Strategy, and Tricia Yankovich, Head of HR, are the three execs in question.
The source also revealed that broader layoffs are imminent, although they didn’t disclose the scale.
Any potential layoffs would be Five9’s third round in less than 12 months, following a seven percent and a four percent workforce reduction in August 2024 and May 2025, respectively.
Before August 2024, the CCaaS stalwart had never made a round of layoffs.
Soon after its second round of job cuts, Five9 underscored its aim to secure “long-term profitable growth” and bolster its “long-term competitive position.”
At the time, Mike Burkland, Chairman and CEO of Five9, also looked to ease concerns by highlighting some “really exciting marketing initiatives” that the company was plotting.
Nevertheless, with the now CMO departing, these may have lost momentum.
Moreover, cuts of this magnitude could suggest that Five9 is prepping to be sold and unloading its payroll.
While this is speculation, Five9 has faced rising investor pressure over the past 12 months, in which its share price has sunk 30 percent (despite its maintaining double-digit revenue growth).
In December 2024, the CCaaS provider appeared to bow to this pressure, giving a board seat to Anson Funds, the asset management company that publicly urged Five9 to sell up months before.
Now, Anson Funds and other activist investors could be attempting to push through a sale.
Could Five9 Really Be Up for Sale?
Five9 has long been linked with an acquisition.
In 2021, Zoom attempted a $14.1BN takeover, but soon abandoned the move.
Later, in December 2023, Bloomberg suggested that Five9 was “weighing up options for a sale.”
At the time, the publication hinted that Zoom may have returned to the table to scope out an acquisition, reaching out to the company for a comment.
However, since 2021, Zoom has established its own CCaaS and conversational AI platforms, creating much more of an overlap between their solutions.
As such, while Zoom could get a cut-price deal, with Five9’s market cap sitting at $2.15BN (as of July 2025), that ship may have sailed.
Meanwhile, other tech giants with adjacent portfolios have recently made big CCaaS moves.
For instance, Microsoft and Google have launched their own solutions, while AWS and Cisco have well-established competitive platforms.
Elsewhere, Salesforce recently unveiled a new CCaaS partner program, and ServiceNow has boosted its partnerships with Genesys, NiCE, and Zoom – alongside Five9 itself.
CRM players like Oracle or SAP could come sniffing. Although, while they’ve enjoyed significant ERP success, both brands have struggled to communicate with the CX market.
There is the possibility that Genesys and NiCE could come knocking. A deal for Five9, which earns $1BN+ in annual CCaaS revenue, would make either the undisputed CCaaS leader.
While that may seem unlikely, NiCE recently snapped up Cognigy and flexed its financial muscle. It also has experience rolling up a CCaaS rival, after its 2023 acquisition of LiveVox.
Some other names circling CCaaS may also consider an acquisition. Yet, Five9 remains an industry giant, and only those with serious financial brawn could make such a move.
