Azaire, Verso, Pulvermedia, IPxstream
I noticed the keyword Azaire Networks being searched on iLocus all through April. So I knew something was going on (or the lack of it). Azaire Networks has indeed and unfortunately been shut down. It happened towards the end of March. Azaire had a nice data continuity story rather than pure voice handover among the FMC solutions in the market. Azaire also had a FMC security gateway product, something similar to Reefpoint (NextPoint) and Netrake (Audiocodes). Acme Packet and other SBC vendors have been trying their luck in the FMC networks. Azaire and others were supposed to have an edge there. Apart from security gateway and multimedia continuity solution, Azaire had about half a dozen trials going on for its VCC solutions. One such trial was at Orange.
Another recent casualty is Verso that collapsed under its own weight. Never easy to make a business out of acquiring 50 different stressed companies. One of the companies that Verso had picked was Clarent, a first generation VoIP vendor of the nineties. Cisco once called Clarent as the biggest competitive threat Cisco faced in service provider VoIP business. Pulvermedia woes are all well known. Diffcult to say what the outcome will be and what TICC decides to do with it. However I think lightening is unlikely to strike twice this time. Pulver may not get to pick this up for peanuts and then revive the VON events - again.
The last casualty I wanted to mention is a smaller outfit IPXstream/IPtelephony.org. Robert Arick ran this site from 1998 till recently. For the last couple of months things have all but ceased due to dried up advertising. IPXstream did one of the best newsletters in the industry. Robert also used to send that Broadband Bob newsletter. After Pulver, IPXstream newsletter had the largest number of subscribers at one time. Robert once mentioned to me that his tech newsletter sites were being valued at $7 million. And then George Bush Junior came along and did the needful.
