Wait-and-see VoIP M&A deals

Questionable deals

BT/Ribbit 

BT paid $105 million cash for a two-year old self-described "Silicon Valley's First Phone Company" - a start-up with no revenues or customers to speak of, but a lot of hype. Sure, it gives BT a larger footprint in the Valley, but it remains to be seen if Ribbit can generate cash through paying Voice 2.0 apps in short order. 

As a relative reference point, BT bought Counterpane Security in 2006 at a guess-timated $40 million and Counterpane had 1) real, paying corporate customers, 2) revenues in the tens of millions per year, and 3) big-name security god/cult-figure Bruce Schneier. 

GENBAND grabbing NextPoint 

Yes, it was the best buy of 2008. But nobody's talked about the sticker price verses what actually was paid. Will GENBAND get its money's worth? 

Dumpster diving in VoIP  

Live Universe picking over Jangl's bones 

We're not sure what was left after Jangl's founders and five engineers split to Jajah, but we're sure Live Universe didn't pay the $20 million offering/asking price that WhitePages.com was reportedly offering before WP started getting cute and shuffling the terms of the deal. 

Virgo Publications grabbing VON assets 

TICC's "handling" of the VON disintegration pretty much burned away any residual goodwill within the VON community of attendees and vendors. One could argue that there's no place but "up" for trying to rebuild upon top of VON, but we're not really sure of the wisdom of trying to publish another print publication in a market that failed to support the original one. Not to mention a fall 2009 trade show that won't really be a VON if it's down in Miami in September. Or lacking a colorful pundit dressed in purple. Or.. you get the picture.