Plantronics Owner May Sell Consumer Unit, CEO Says

Headset supplier Poly, which includes Plantronics, wants to exit the consumer business to stay “laser-focused” on its enterprise opportunity, said CEO Joseph Burton on a call Tuesday about the quarter ended March 31. It’s in the “very early days of thinking this through,” he said. Whether it sells the business in “a single transaction to a single buyer” or through “multiple transactions” or finds a joint venture partner, “all that's a little bit still in front of us,” he said. Consumer is roughly 8 percent of total revenue, he said. Poly is watching this week’s tariffs situation “like a hawk,” and is “uniquely positioned ... versus some of our competitors” to weather the storm if the third tranche of Chinese duties rise to 25 percent (see 1905080033), said Burton. It builds a “considerable number” of its products “in-house” in a factory it owns in Tijuana, Mexico, he said.