Wait-and-see VoIP M&A deals

Doug Mohney — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:22:26 -0500

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.

Live Universe Snaps Up Jangl Leftovers

Doug Mohney — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:19:42 -0400

Live Universe has agreed to acquire Jangl's assets and remaining staff. Last week, Jangl's founders and five engineers split to Jajah after the company failed to find a buyer and its board was unwilling to raise more capital.

Live Universe is an online entertainment network lead by the founder of MySpace and the company operates websites across "core verticals" of video, social networking, and music. With a network reach of 56 million unique visitors in June 2007 (Comscore) and sites high in the 16-36 demographic and Jangl's emphasis on adding voice to social networking, it would appear that the two companies are a good fit. There's also some interest in what might happen to Jangl's existing deals with social networking sites Facebook, Bebo, Match.com, Frendster, and others now that Live is taking over.

Jangle's tale of woe started last fall when its board said it wasn't going to raise more venture money and management needed to find a buyer. A deal to be acquired by WhitePages.com fell through and founder Michael Cerda announced his departure through a personal blog posting on May 7.

For more:
- TechCrunch's blog on Live Universe Buying Jangl leftovers

Related articles:
Jangl and TalkPlus On the Block
Michael Cerda's blog on Jangl and Jajah