While walking the floor at the Spring VoN in San Jose last week, I heard rumblings that Veraz Networks, a telecom software company [softswitches, media gateways and digital compression products... that sort of stuff] might be headed towards an IPO later this year.
The company has been on a tear lately, especially in the emerging telecom markets. It has also has benefitted from the demand for VoIP related gear. The company claims its VoIP revenues were up 100%, and it won 37 new contracts last year, half of them coming from new customers.
The demand for VoIP related gear is likely to remain strong according to some research firms. The VoIP bonanza will help the company nudge past the $100 million in sales later this year, my sources tell me. Given that the VoIP is hot, there will be an appetite for a Veraz offering. The softswitch maker which started life as IPVerse, raised millions from the likes of Norwest Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins.
It almost died in the telecom bust but Norwest helped keep it alive, and the company was reborn as Nextverse. Nextverse, then merged with a division of ECI Telecom, an Israeli telecom gear maker. That combined company is called Veraz Networks. So if this offering does happen, it could be a big pay-day for Norwest.
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