RLS LineNet: News and Events

Infonetics research report

admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:14:03 +0000

A new Infonetics research report on second-quarter carrier VoIP spending shows some signs of life for the industry, which has been battered due to reduced carrier capex amid the recession. Global carrier VoIP equipment revenues totaled $598 million in Q2, and while the market segment revenues were off 32 percent year-over-year, they did show slight improvement of 0.8 percent from Q1.

Diane Myers, author of the report and directing analyst for carrier VoIP for Infonetics, said voice application servers, media gateways and Class 5 softswitches were the strongest equipment categories for the quarter, while EMEA and North America showed the best regional sales performance.

The report said AudioCodes, Cisco, MetaSwitch, Sonus, Alca-Lu, Italtel, Broadsoft, and Nortel (hard to believe, but true) stood out with strong revenue increases for the quarter.

Report: Mark Andressen, others aim to purchase Skype

admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:12:44 +0000

Skype, which corporate parent eBay has said it will spin off in an IPO in spring 2010, may be subject to a private offer from Netscape founded Marc Andressen’s new venture capital firm and other private equity groups, according to a TechCrunch report. Andressen Horowitz, Andressen’s new firm, would have to join with other firms to raise the $2 billion Skype is seeking for the unit.

Skype currently is facing a legal challenge from Joltid, a separate company still owned by Skype co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, over the underlying software that powers Skype. The court case has been speculated to be potentially devastating to Skype, but others disagree. It’s also possible that the Joltid case is a leverage tool to bring the company back to the cofounders, who already have expressed their desire to buy Skype back from eBay. Perhaps they could even join with Andressen’s group to bid on the VoIP company.

Either way, despite claims that Skype’s reported figure of 450 million registered users might be bogus, the company is still on track to rake in more than $600 million in 2009, according to eBay financial reports. An eventual Skype IPO will be one of the most publicized and potentially lucrative tech offerings in some time.

Vonage iPhone App submission sends stock soaring

admin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:48:54 +0000

Vonage shares have been skyrocketing after reports surfaced about the company’s plans for an Apple iPhone App, according to a Bloomberg report. Vonage has been on its largest three day stock rally since May 2006, according to Reuters, and the bundled plan the company announced last week just didn’t warrant the gains for most analysts.

An approved iPhone app would be a boon for Vonage, which has been languishing with a huge debt load and high churn, unable to grow its subscriber base to reach profitability.

A Barron’s blog report, however, said Vonage’s request with Apple has been delayed by technical issues, according to an interview with Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris. She confirmed that Vonage has submitted an iPhone application for review, however.

Apple’s App store and its take on VoIP applications has been in the news all week, as the FCC probes Apple’s rejection of Google’s Google Voice app. Will Apple allow Vonage’s app, which could pose a threat to wireless revenue for its iPhone partner AT&T?

AT&T, which maintains it had nothing to do with the Google Voice removal, said its agreement with Apple allows VoIP over WiFi, but prohibits applications that access the 3G cellular network for voice call transmission.