WorldGate closes after customer dispute

The maker of the the uber cool Ojo video phone, WorldGate, has shut down shop. This follows a bitter dispute with Snap!VRS, a provider of services for the deaf, hard-of-hearing, or speech impaired. Snap had bought 3,000 of the Ojo video phones for interpreters to help disabled people communicate with standard users. (Snap customers dial a video phone and communicate with an interpreter using sign language while the interpreter simultaneously relays the comments in spoken English to the standard telephone user.)

WorldGate closed on Jan. 30 after releasing a form 8-k announcing it intended to wind down the business declaring it was in "a dispute with its largest customer over the payment of significant monies which the Company believes are owed to it."

Snap!VRS later admitted it was the company in question, but denied it owned any money. "While WorldGate would like to direct the blame for its present financial troubles on us, the blame does not reside with Snap!VRS and it is misleading for WorldGate to suggest so," said Snap!VRS CEO Richard Schatzberg. "In actuality, we are current on all payments and do not owe WorldGate any money. We feel so strongly about our position and are so intent on resolving this matter swiftly that we have offered to submit this disagreement to immediate binding arbitration, a process by which an independent third party decides who is right. WorldGate has rejected this offer." Snap suggested its customers use VP-100/200 and D-Link's video phones instead.

For more:
- WorldGate form 8-K announcement of closure SEC Filing
- Snap!VRS letter to customers

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