VocalTec
VoIP | |
Revenue | US$ 158.36 million (2012) |
---|---|
US$ 43.56 million (2012) | |
US$ 55.85 million (2012) | |
Total assets | US$ 194.23 million (2012) |
Total equity | US$ 49.09 million (2012) |
Subsidiaries | magicJack |
Website | vocaltec |
Footnotes / references [1] |
VocalTec Communications Inc. is an Israeli
History
VocalTec was founded in 1985 by
Other projects during the mid to late 80s included Audio editing software, external audio card (mainly for laptops) that was connected the parallel (printer) port, standalone digital audio playback device for frozen desert trucks, multimedia presentation with audio (based on IBM's Story Board presentation software), a system for the disabled (mute) with text to speech which enabled "talking" and conducting phone calls, broadcasting recording, editing and transfer system for offshore radio station, automated IVR information systems, voice messaging over LAN and many other projects utilizing digital audio.
In 1990, technology entrepreneur Elon Ganor joined the company to manage International Sales & Marketing, and later on was nominated as CEO.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
In 1993, VocalTec introduced The CAT to the international market, a peripheral device that provided audio capability for personal computers. In 1993 and 1994, the company introduced additional products, including CATBoard, a full duplex audio card, an internal audio card that provided high level compression. Net sales of these products totaled approximately $0.3 million, $0.4 Million and $0.2 Million in 1993, 1994 and the first nine months of 1995, respectively, and the Company did not expect to recognize significant revenues from sales of these products in the future.[16]
In early 1993 the company partnered with ClassX, a group of innovative teenagers led by Ofer Shem-Tov (a childhood friend of Haramaty) to develop MS Windows audio drivers and related software. ClassX was acquired by VocalTec in 1993 and became the core of VocalTec's software and network development team, and the company recruited Rami Amit as a hardware engineer (also a childhood friend of Haramaty and Shem-Tov).
Despite Ganor's initial objection, VocalTec's management decided to shift the company's focus to software, and in 1993 VocalChat was born, a software that enabled voice communication from one PC to another on a local and wide area network, and VocalChat LAN/WAN, hardware and software products that enable real-time voice conversations over local and wide area computer networks.[17] The software was developed, based on Cohen & Haramaty's Audio Transceiver design, by a group of developers including Ofer Shem Tov, Ofer Kahana, Elad Sion (died young in a car accident), Dror Tirosh, Rami Amit and others. The software was presented in Atlanta in May 1993 at the Network InterOp trade show.[11] In 1994 support for Internet Protocol was added and on Friday, February 10, 1995 “Internet Phone“ was launched with a near full page Wall Street Journal article by WSJ Boston Correspondent Bill Bulkeley, “Hello World! Audible chats On the Internet” was the header.[7]
VocalTec Internet Phone
VocalTec released the first ever Internet
The software was invented by Alon Cohen and Lior Haramaty, the two co-founders of VocalTec Ltd.[1][19][20] At the base of the Internet Phone was the invention of Alon Cohen and Lior Haramaty named the "Audio Transceiver", which managed the dynamic jitter buffer that was critical for achieving adaptive lower possible audio latency along with handling packet loss, packet re-ordering, and receiver transmitter sample rate adjustments. The first implementation of the "Audio Transceiver" was carried out by Elad Sion.[3]
Initial Public Offering
VocalTec had an initial public offering on the NASDAQ on February 6, 1996. The company sold 2,500,000 shares for $19 a share. 1,750,00 shares were sold by the company and 750,000 were sold by selling shareholders including Elon Ganor, VocalTec's CEO and his brother in law, Ami Tal, through their holding of La Cresta International Trading Inc.[21] VocalTec's leadership who managed its successful IPO included:[22] Elon Ganor - chairman of the board and CEO, Ami Tal - Director and Chief Operating Officer, Alon Cohen - Director and Chief Technology Officer, Lior Haramaty - Director and Vice President Technical Marketing, Yahal Zilka - Chief Financial officer and Secretary, Daniel Nissan - Vice President Marketing, Ohad Finkelstein - Vice President International Sales,
In 1997,
In 2005, the company completed a business combination with Tdsoft, a provider of VoIP Gateways.[26] and refocused on providing carrier-class multimedia and voice-over-IP systems for communication service providers. The company's Essentra suite, comprised the essential building blocks required to develop a next-generation-network, addressing customers’ specific requirements in trunking, peering and residential/enterprise VoIP applications.
Reverse merger with magicJack
On July 16, 2010, MagicJack took over VocalTec in a reverse takeover.
ITXC
In 1997, VocalTec founded
In 2003 ITXC was acquired by
See also
References
- ^ a b U.S. patent 5,825,771
- ^ a b Tov, Shirley Yom (2005-06-16), "Happy 10th birthday, VoIP", The Marker, archived from the original on 2012-02-18
- ^ a b "The 10 that Established VoIP (Part 1: VocalTec)", ILocus, 2007-07-16, retrieved 2009-12-05
- ^ TechTrends, November 1990, Volume 35, Issue 6, pp 29-34
- ^ Kerbusk, Klaus_Peter (2001). "Attack Von Bill Gates". Der Spiegel. Germany.
- ^ "Telefonieren übers Internet wird salonfähig". Die Zeit. Germany. August 16, 1996.
- ^ a b Bulkeley, William M. (February 10, 1995). "Hello World! Audible chats On the Internet". Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Tanaka, Jamie (October 27, 1997). "You're Coming Over Loud and Almost Clear". BusinessWeek.
- ^ Mermelstein, Jeff (April 22, 1996). "Try Beating These Long-Distance Rates". BusinessWeek.
- ^ Levy, Steven (May 13, 1996). "Calling All Computers". Newsweek.
- ^ a b Pulver, Jeff (September 2003). "Elon Ganor of VocalTec". Von Magazine.
- ^
Lawrence, Andrew (January 1998). Computer Business.
{{cite journal}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ Hertzberg, Robert (December 1, 1997). "Internet Telephony's Pioneer". WebWeek.
- ^ Krause, Jason (December 27, 1999). "The Return of Elon Ganor". The Industry Standard.
- ^ Quittner, Joshua (March 27, 1995). "Talk Gets Very Cheap". Time Magazine.
- ^ "VocalTec S1 Prospectus, Page 18, 1996". VocalTec.
- ^ "Vocaltec Introduces Vocalchat Wan For Voice Communications Over Corporate Wide Area Networks". www.thefreelibrary.com. February 14, 1994. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015.
- ^ Hapgood, Fred. "IPhone Will telephony on the Net bring the telcos to their knees?". Wired Magazine.
- ^ Malik, Om. "The Voice over IP Insurrection", September 19, 2004.
- ^ Internet Telephony magazine, October 2006.
- ^ "VocalTec S1 - Cover Page".
- ^ "VocalTec's S1 Prospectus, Page 33". VocalTec.
- ^ Delta Three Inc. Enables PC-To-Phone Calls Worldwide; Delta Three(TM) Joins VocalTec's NextGen Telephony Program, Providing Service to Over 200 Countries Worldwide, PR Newswire Aug 18, 1997
- ^ Galante, Suzanne (August 28, 1997), "German telco buys into Net phones", CNET
- ^ Marcial, Gene (March 20, 2000). "For a Two-for-One Deal, Dial VocalTec: This Net telephony pioneer is that rare bird: A tech stock that's also a value play". BusinessWeek. Archived from the original on May 11, 2000.
- ^ "Tdsoft, VocalTec Merge", Light Reading, October 28, 2005
- ^ "VoIP Nostalgia". blog.tomevslin.com.
- ^ ""Maariv": ITXC, in Which VocalTec Holds 19.9%, to Be Issued at $300 Mln Value". Globes. August 18, 1999.
- ^ An Evolution Heard 'Round the World; Start-Ups Race to Combine Phone, Computer Services, Elizabeth Douglass, Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2000
- ^ "Canadian company Teleglobe, to buy Vocaltec's ITXC", Globes, 2003-11-05, archived from the original on 2011-07-13, retrieved 2009-12-05