Cisco’s move into living room video conferencing with its Umi product never got going, hampered by a high price and competition from free alternatives. Now Cisco has confirmed that it is no longer selling the consumer telepresence gear, though it will continue to support existing users. Read More »
Tech
Skype opened up its development platform to all comers Tuesday, but it still has a disconnect between revenue generation and its platform efforts. Like many companies trying to build a dominant position in the technology ecosystem, Skype is navigating the path between dollars and devs. Read More »
Microsoft confirmed that it has agreed to acquire Skype for $8.5 billion and plans to integrate the Internet communications service into a wide array of products from Kinect and Windows Phone 7 to Lync, Outlook and Xbox Live. Read More »
Skype’s new beta client for Mac computers is vastly improved with a native look, group video chat across platforms, floating toolbars, offline messaging capabilities and Address Book integration. All of a sudden, Skype for Mac looks sexy, and you can thank Apple’s FaceTime client for that. Read More »
With 560 million registered users (124 million of which are active), but only 8.1 million paying customers, Skype could use some help. Cisco makes a great deal of sense as a buyer, because it can monetize Skype’s user base in a way that Skype never could. Read More »
Juniper and Polycom will deliver products and services to answer the looming threat Cisco plays in the videoconferencing space. But by taking a page from Cisco’s playbook, they may have doomed themselves to failure. Instead of marrying the network and device, they should open things up. Read More »
Cisco’s $3.4 billion bid to take over Tandberg has moved one step closer to reality, as the networking giant said today that it’s gained control of 91.1 percent of the Norwegian company’s shares. But the deal still needs approval from the U.S. DOJ. Read More »
First Cisco Systems decided to buy Norwegian video conferencing equipment maker Tandberg for about $3 billion. This week, Logitech, a Swiss computer peripherals maker, acquired LifeSize, an Austin, Texas-based private company, for about $405 million in cash. The two deals have brought the fast-growing… Read More »
ViVu said today that it’s received $3 million in Series A funding for its virtual video webcast and collaboration platform, pressuring rival offerings such as Citrix’s GoToMeeting and and Cisco’s WebEx. The round was led by Inventus Capital Partners; Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Quest Ventures… Read More »
Cisco today offered to buy Tandberg, a Norwegian company that makes video conferencing equipment, for $3 billion in cash, a move that would give it a broader customer base, a bunch of legacy gear as well as a name in the teleconferencing market. Cisco’s love of… Read More »
Startup Vidyo took the stage at DEMO today to demonstrate a new approach to videoconferencing, following the announcement of their new offering and a licensing relationship with Cisco Systems. The Hackensack, N.J.-based startup has implemented a newly minted standard, called scalable video coding (SVC), that enables… Read More »
Bill Burnham draws a parallel between today’s Microsoft and IBM of old, circa 1975. They have pretty much the same problems and people perceptions are nothing to write home about. Reading Burnham’s post, I found myself nodding my head in agreement, wondering if history is… Read More »
