8x8 :: VoIP Biz-News.com

Number of results 25 for 8x8

19/01/2012 - 8x8 tops earnings estimates, sees revenue grow 31%

8x8 (Nasdaq: EGHT) Wednesday reported revenue of $23.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2012, a 31 percent increase from a year ago. It also topped analyst earnings estimates with a 73 percent Y-o-Y increase to $2.6 million, or 4 cents per share. Wall Street had expected the company to deliver earnings of 3 cents per share.

Chief executive and board chairman Bryan Martin, during the company's earnings call, pointed to escalating demand for 8x8's cloud-based business communications and computing services. He said revenue from business customers grew 42 percent from a year ago, and now represents 93 percent of total revenue.

Martin said 8x8 increasingly was attracting interest from larger customers, a byproduct of its acquisition of call center specialist Contactual, a deal that closed in September, and brought 8x8 some 250 new, mostly big business clients, including Jamba, HomeAway and General Electric.

While Martin declined to break out revenue numbers specific to Contactual, he told FierceEnterpriseCommunications that the deal had already exceeded the company's expectation from the standpoint of revenue and customer growth. "The integration was extremely quick," he said, adding that the sales and support groups were "working very well together."

8x8 also reported record low 2 percent churn in the quarter, and said business customers were spending an average of $239 a month for its services, up from $207 in the prior quarter. The number of services businesses are requesting also increased, to 14.1 from 12.4 in Q2. Also improved in the quarter were product margins, said Martin, the result of a continued focus on selling higher quality endpoints at higher price points to larger customers.

8x8's focus on expanding its base of channel partner is generating solid results; it ended the quarter with 54 partners, up from 40 at the start of the quarter. Included in that number are three service providers--SaskTel, Bell Canada, and Centurylink--that previously partnered with Contactual, and are now distributing the product under 8x8's brand. The company also added AT&T Mobility and 83 additional new customer deals through channel partners in the quarter.

"Our absolute channel numbers are still a small percentage of new sales, but the increase in revenue from these partners is encouraging and our recruitment efforts continue to gain momentum and traction with new partner prospects," Martin said.

Looking forward, Martin said 8x8 expected 2012 to "be a banner year."

"What were seeing is across the board adoption of these services," he said, adding that while "I don't think we've declared victory," momentum for cloud services is increasing. The industry, he said, is "starting to see white papers that encourage IT professionals to look to the cloud."

Martin pointed to 8x8's customer win with the city of Garden Grove, Calif., as an example. The city government has selected 8x8 to host its disaster recovery IT operations, a new business for 8x8 and an easy fit for its technology.

Government and education are two verticals in which 8x8 sees huge growth potential. It recently added Yale University and Ball State University to its customer roster.

"We're beginning to penetrate into businesses that historically would have adopted an on premise hardware approach," he said. Martin added that 8x8 was getting "a lot of K-12 requests because there are a lot of school systems looking to upgrade their aging phone systems."

Commenting on its recent Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) certification, Martin said the distinction was important because "Cisco can open up a lot of different doors in different ways."

8x8 stock was up nearly 6 percent in after hours trading.

For more:
- see this release

20/10/2011 - 8x8 misses earnings estimates, reports record revenue in fiscal 2Q12

VoIP provider 8x8 (Nasdaq: EGHT), which saw record revenues last quarter, reported record sales for its fiscal second quarter of 2012, but missed analyst estimates on earnings per share by 2 cents.

Despite the narrow miss, the company maintained that its strategy to go after upmarket customers--larger businesses and government customers--was gaining traction, helping it add 300 new business voice accounts.

"We are excited about the prospects we see in these markets through our new sales channel partners," said Bryan Martin, 8x8's chairman and chief executive.

The company reported EPS of 1 cent, on net income of $800,000, down from 3 cents and $2 million a year earlier; total revenue for the quarter was $19.8 million, a 14 percent increase compared to revenue of $17.4 million for the same period of fiscal 2011.

8x8 said business customer revenue made up 91 percent of its total for the quarter and that it grew 21 percent year-over-year. Cloud data service became a slightly larger part of 8x8's revenue picture, increasing to 3.1 percent of total revue from 2.5 percent.

Business customer churn was essentially flat, 2.1 percent in the quarter compared to 2.2 percent a year ago. 8x8 ended the quarter with 26,727 business customers, including 250 customers added from the Contactual acquisition, up from 25,455 in the prior quarter and 22,167 customers a year ago.

"We experienced unusually strong summer demand for our cloud-based unified communications solutions," said Martin. "We executed upon several key strategic initiatives that underscore 8x8's unique role as the one stop shop for industry-leading, 'gold standard' solutions, highlighted this quarter by the expansion of our offerings with the acquisition of Contactual."

Martin added that August was 8x8's best month ever for recurring revenue generated, and he said ARPU had increased to $207 from $200 in the prior quarter.

For more:
- see this release

29/09/2011 - Survey: SMBs see growth ahead, focus on cutting costs

SMBs continue to look ahead at future growth, but a sluggish economy has them looking harder for products that help them reduce costs, according to a new survey conducted by hosted VoIP provider 8x8 (Nasdaq: EGHT).

The survey, which looked at new 8x8 customers who subscribed to the company's VoIP service between May 1 and August 19, showed business customers most concerned about reducing costs, attracting new customers and hiring and affording new employees.

The amount of concern over reducing costs appeared to deepen over the summer, the company said.

More than half (55 percent) of respondents in August indicated they were "more concerned" about business expenses this year than last. By contrast, only 39 percent said they were more concerned in June.

"Managing and keeping up with business growth" was listed as a top concern by nearly one-third of the respondents.

About half of all respondents said they'd switched to 8x8 from their local phone company with the majority expressing concern about reducing expenses as their reason for making the switch. Another 25 percent switched to 8x8 from another VoIP provider.

"Clearly, the economy remains very challenging for small businesses, and they're realizing the need to scrutinize expenses and prepare for growth by making the right choices now," said 8x8 Chairman and CEO Bryan Martin. "We're obviously very pleased that so many of our customers seem confident their business will grow. That's not only good news for us as their communications provider, but also a refreshingly positive perspective on the future of the economy in general."

When asked what influenced their decision to implement 8x8 VoIP phone service in their business, some 62 percent of the new customers surveyed cited overall cost savings, 70 percent cited features, 43 percent cited portability and geographic flexibility and 37 percent cited the convenience of having 8x8 host and maintain the service.

The survey mirrors similar research from Citibank earlier this month that found the majority of small business owners believe they are poised to grow or are already in growth mode. Just less than half (49 percent) said they are "holding their own, but poised to grow when the climate is right" and 28 percent indicated they are already growing. The vast majority (90 percent), however, remain concerned about the economy, including the possibility of a double-dip recession. The results also show an increasing trend in small businesses feeling more prepared to withstand longer-term challenges.

For more:
- see this release

19/09/2011 - 8x8 closes Contactual acquisition

VoIP provider 8x8 (Nasdaq: EGHT) announced it has completed its acquisition of cloud-based contact center Contactual, deepening its technological expertise and service offerings in the hosted SaaS (Software as a Service) call center market. The deal was announced just a week ago.

The deal is a first of sorts for 8x8, in that it brings in-house the only major software technology that was not owned and developed by 8x8. The products, however, aren't new to 8x8, which has been reselling Contactual contact center technology since 2007.

The deal helps position 8x8 to provide broad-based cloud communications and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) solutions.

"Together, 8x8 and Contactual become a formidable competitor in the customer interaction management and contact center space," said 8x8 Chairman & CEO Bryan Martin. "With our combined resources, longevity in the market and proven solution, we are in a unique and powerful position to quickly and effectively meet the needs of the growing number of businesses seeking non-premise, cloud-based call center services."

For more:
- see this release
- see this FierceTelecom article

18/10/2010 - 8x8 Partners With Polycom

8x8 announced it has signed a partnership agreement with Polycom enabling it to offer Polycom's IP telephony and conferencing solutions to 8x8 Virtual Office hosted VoIP subscribers.

14/10/2010 - 8x8 teams with Polycom to offer IP phones to Virtual Office hosted VoIP customers

8x8 specializes in the ethereal world of cloud communications, but at some point their services need to find some hardware to land on. In that vein, the company is teaming with IP phone experts Polycom to offer deskphones and conferencing solutions to their 8x8 Virtual Office hosted VoIP subscribers.

Intially 8x8 will provide subscribers Polycom's SoundPoint IP 335 desk phone, which integrates with the VoIP provider's systems featuring auto attendant, voicemail, Caller ID, call forwarding, conference bridge and Polycom HD Voice. Another cool thing about these phones is that they feature Voice Quality Monitoring (VQMON) which gives 8x8 the ability to monitor real-time voice quality of calls made over their hosted VoIP service.

Additional phones to be offered over the coming weeks through this partnership will include: additional SoundPoint IP desktop phones, SoundStation IP conference phones and Polycom KIRK wireless phones and accessories.

For more:
- read the release

30/09/2010 - VoIP's looking good and has the numbers to prove it

Doug Mohney over at TMC wrote up an interesting predictive piece on rosy outlook for VoIP in the next decade. He took a look at 8x8 and Metaswitch's recent numbers and future plans. These two companies say VoIP is only getting stronger and they've got their own performance to back up that theory up. Article

19/08/2010 - Inside look into 8x8's Virtual Office Pro

PC Magazine has been doing some neat reviews of VoIP and Unified Communications (UC) offerings. They recently did an overview of 8x8 Virtual Office Pro. Check it out to get a good inside look at what the software is like. Article

29/07/2010 - 8x8 sees healthy demand--and revenue stream

8x8 (Nasdaq: EGHT) continues to defy the economic downturn. The only double dip here is the double dip into more positive revenues news. 8x8 released news of its first quarter fiscal year 2011 and investors were pleased by the business VoIP provider's continued success.

The company showed customer growth in signing up 32,896 new business lines in the first quarter over 29,985 from the last quarter and over the 27,937 from the same period in 2009. It brought in $16.8 million in revenue during the first quarter--about a $1.2 million over revenue for the same period a year ago.

"We continue to experience healthy demand for our hosted communications services from both the under-10 employee small business customer as well as larger SMBs and distributed enterprise organizations and anticipate these adoption trends will continue to drive the top line revenue upwards in the coming quarters," said 8x8 Chairman and CEO Bryan Martin in the release.

For more:
- read the release

20/05/2010 - 8x8 reports earnings, grows business customer rev 21%

Hosted VoIP provider, 8x8 announced financial operating results for its fiscal fourth quarter and year ended March 31, 2010 and it looks like the business hosted VoIP market is doing quite well.

The company noted that net income for 2010 was $3.9 million compared with a net loss in 2009. Total revenue for 2010 was $63.4 million compared with $64.7 million for fiscal 2009, but revenue from business customers grew 21 percent year over year from $40.2 million in 2009 to $48.7 million in 2010.

In Q4 of fiscal 2010, 8x8 added 29,985 new business lines and services, up 14 percent from the last quarter. That's also up 35 percent from the same period last year. 8x8 also added 2,875 gross new business customers during Q4 compared to the 2,785 customers it added last quarter.

For more:
- read the release

10/05/2010 - 8x8 picks up Central Host

8x8 has acquired Central Host, a hosted computer services provider, adding new services and customers to its base.

Central Host provides web hosting services to businesses using managed servers. The move will add managed hosting and cloud computing services to 8x8's business service offerings. The acquisition will also mean Central Host's customers will have access to 8x8's hosted communications offerings--a potential expansion of 8x8's customer base.

8x8 paid $1 million and issued 432,276 shares of common stock to Central Host's sole shareholder.

"By harnessing the strengths of this great team, I believe we have what we need to scale our cloud-based computing services to become the next major player in the managed hosting service market," said Andy Schwabecher, Central Host's Founder and now General Manager of Managed Hosting and Cloud-Based Computing at 8x8, Inc. in a release.

For more:
- read the release

24/03/2010 - 8x8 Awarded Virtual Telephone Extension Patent

8x8 has been granted United States Patent entitled "Virtual Telephone Extension." The patent relates to methods of routing communications to users and associated equipment by utilizing a user identifier that serves as a virtual extension number.

05/02/2010 - 8x8 Announces Voice over 3G Update to its iPhone App

8x8 announced that an update to its Virtual Office Mobile application which supports business voice services over 3G is now available in the Apple iTunes app store for iPhone and iPod Touch models.

28/01/2010 - 8x8's business revenues grew 19% year over year

Take that economic downturn! 8x8 announced in their earnings this week that their revenue from business customers grew 7 percent sequentially and 19 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Business churn also decreased to a record low of 2.4 percent, compared to a churn rate of 2.7 percent in the previous quarter and 2.9 percent during the same period last year.

All was not good news, however, as net income was down sequentially by about $300,000. Also while business customers were becoming a larger and larger portion of 8x8's revenue stream, residential customers were falling off. Revenue from residential customers declined 21 percent sequentially and 41 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Perhaps their latest iPhone app offerings and the Facebook 'Call Me' feature will help appeal to and retain residential customers in the future.

For more:
- read the release

22/01/2010 - IT EXPO: 8x8 launches Virtual Office Online across offerings

Taking the hosted solution a bit further, 8x8 announced at IT EXPO that it is making its new “Virtual Office Online” dashboard a standard feature of all its Virtual Office Unlimited, Metered and Global Extension plans.

8x8's Virtual Office Online offers a web-based solution letting users manage features of their Virtual Office phone service remotely through a web portal. The system allows users to choose any convenient handset or computer headset to take and make calls, allows for dialing directly from a corporate directory or Microsoft Outlook contact database, view and listen to voicemail online, as well as check out lists of phone calls and chats. The system also sets call handling rules like Do Not Disturb and Call Forwarding.

For an extra $20 a month per extension, 8x8's PRO version offers business users fax and virtual meetings. "With the Pro version and a web camera you can do web conferencing meetings straight from the portal and it is completely integrated with the other Virtual Office services," said VP Business Development for 8x8, Huw Rees in an interview with FierceVoIP.

For more:
- read this release

22/01/2010 - IT EXPO: 8x8 adds Call Me feature for Facebook

Wouldn't mind getting calls from long lost friends on Facebook, but don't want to give out your phone number to your other 300 so-called friends? Well, 8x8's VoIP service has added a feature for customers to make this possibility a reality.

8x8's Facebook app adds a 'Call Me' button to users' profiles and when it is clicked, a caller enters their own phone number to start the call. The application calls the caller's phone and then connects it to the user's preferred number on the 8x8 system. The user's number remains private as the call is connected through the 8x8 service.

Although the service sounds like a consumer play, the focus is actually on 8x8's small business users who use the Virtual Office System and have recently set-up Facebook pages for their businesses. The 'Call me' button will make it that much easier for customers to connect with businesses through their preferred online methods.

For more:
- read this article

21/01/2010 - 8x8 adds Virtual Office Mobile to iPhone users' arsenal

It's seems like just about every VoIP company will have an iPhone app one day and in that blessed future, we will hopefully all be working from the beach just outside the conference halls of IT EXPO. In the mean time you could log on to 8x8's new iPhone app from any of the WiFi hotspots around the show floor.

8x8's Virtual Office Mobile allows subscribers to use their Virtual Office phone number and service remotely when they log on to a WiFi connection using their iPhone. The service converts the iPhone into a Virtual Office extention and allows unlimited inbound and outbound domestic calls, as well as international calls at competitive rates. The app will also allow extension dialing, 3-way calling and voicemail. Sounds like the perfect app for making calls from the beaches in Miami.

For more:
- read the release

15/01/2010 - 8x8: Service outage caused by unaffiliated ISP interference

8x8's VoIP service outage on January 12 lasted about four hours and resulted in some frustration for both customers and the company itself. 8x8 was gracious enough to provide us with some more details about what exactly happend.

According to Joan Citelli, director of Corporate Communications for 8x8, the outage occured when an unaffiliated Tier-1 ISP interfered with the routing for 8x8's own IP address blocks provided by their own ISP. Some customers were able to get service quickly after the outage when the company provided correct routing info via their backup data providers, but the disruption for the outside ISP continued for a few hours and prevented some customers from getting service.

All of 8x8's core software and networks were operational, but due to the IP addresses being blocked they were inaccessible to customers. The company plans to implement further mechanisms to deal with similar routing problems in the future as well as add alternative methods of communication to let customers know about outages and repair times. Look back here for more info on these moves in the future.

14/01/2010 - Packet8 back online after outage

8x8 says the failure of its VoIP system Packet8 yesterday was caused, according to the company, by "an Internet element beyond our control." The service returned by 4:30 PM pacific time and the company is still looking into the causes of the disruption.

A major issue during the disruption was 8x8's own internal systems (including their website) went down with the VoIP service. Their own 8x8 Virtual Office is used internally, and when the system went offline, 8x8 employees used their own cell phones to communicate with frustrated clients.

TMCnet points out that the outage has a occurred almost a year after Packet8 experienced an outage due to a DNS issue. Back then a domain name service registry problem with www.packet8.net resulted in customers not being able to reach the packet8.net website and having failures in phone service. Registry.com was apparently at fault. Packet8 had a number of fail-over processes, but DNS issues prevented the mechanisms from working as anticipated. The 2009 outage bares a striking resemblance to this new outage with phones going down as well as the website. Could the same problem strike again?

For more:
- read this article

Related articles
DNS hiccups at Packet8
8x8 launches HD voice for its Virtual Office product
8x8 seeing more gov biz, larger customer
8x8 sees Q2 profits increase with new customers and sales team

07/01/2010 - 8x8 launches HD voice for its Virtual Office product

8x8's small business and enterprise VoIP product 'Virtual Office' now has HD voice. HD audio quality will be available for the company's branded IP phone models 6753i, 6755i, and 6757i.

HD calls double the regular VoIP sampling rate from 8K to 16K samples per second making calls clearer and more detailed. Current 8x8 customers will need to contact the company in order to get the new HD service. New customers will automatically get the HD voice offerings.

For more:
- read this article

02/11/2009 - 8x8 sees Q2 profits increase with new customers and sales team

8x8 is seeing green despite the economy's effect on its traditional markets. After making moves to target larger companies and the federal government while increasing sales staff, 8x8's second quarter earnings results show revenue growth for the first time in a year as well as the highest level of operating income the company has ever had since going public. The VoIP provider posted $1.3 million in net profit for the second quarter of fiscal 2010.

The company shifted away from resellers earlier in the year to focus more on direct sales while doubling their sales force. The move seems to have paid off as 8x8 has seen a sequential spike in net income--a 2900% increase from a year ago according to Telephony.

The profit spike seems to be due in part to the economy forcing companies to look at hosted VoIP for the cost savings, and also Nortel's recent bankruptcy issues which might be bringing some potential customers over to 8x8's side.

For more:
- read this article

22/10/2009 - 8x8 wins auto-provisioning patent; broad implications for industry?

Yesterday, 8x8 announced that they have been awarded a patent for a technology that enables a VoIP phone to automatically locate and connect to web servers to download appropriate configurations and upgrades.

The patent seems simple and harmless enough, but Garrett Smith over at Smith on VoIP raises a red flag. "I’m no patent lawyer and certainly some of the verbose used in the patent is lost on me, but it sure seems that what 8X8 has patented is how just about every residential and hosted VoIP provider goes about offering 'plug-n-play' functionality to the end customer as well as the ability to push new settings, firmware, etc seamlessly," muses Smith on his blog.

If he's right in the way he's reading this patent, the implication is that VoIP providers might have to start looking for other ways to provide their automatic configuration and firmware upgrade features.

For more:
- read the release
- read Smith on VoIP's story

Related articles
8x8 posts net profit for fiscal Q1 2010
8x8 announces Q3 2009 results, adds cash
Rumor mill: 8x8 stocking up cash to go shopping

03/09/2009 - IT EXPO West - 8x8 seeing more gov biz, larger customer deployments

LOS ANGELES - 8x8's recent financial results have given credence to the company's claims that it is not only surviving but preparing to take market share during the current recession. Executives at IT EXPO West said the average line deployment per customer is growing quickly, and Huw Rees, VP of business development, said the company is seeing traction with government entities around hosted VoIP solutions. He said he's placing a bid at least every two weeks with government clients and that the company is closely monitoring the opportunity around broadband stimulus.

8x8 CMO Debbie Jo Severin said while July and August are typically slow sales months for the company, which has been incorporated since 1987, this August saw a record number of new customer wins. She said the company will be adding more unified communications functionality to its Virtual Office hosted IP PBX product in the upcoming months. She also said, while it was never wise to "lose your sense of vulnerability," that Digium and Skype's announcement of Skype for Asterisk did not represent a major threat to 8x8's core offering.

"Skype might have an effect, but what I think is great about 8x8 is that it's built for small businesses, and it's not taking a consumer business and slapping an enterprise piece on it," Severin said. "It might do well in a 2 or 3 line situation, but these small businesses are going to want the feature set, the auto attendant and other business functionality that 8x8 provides."

Also of note, Severin said TMC CEO Rich Tehrani confirmed that 8x8 is the longest running consecutive vendor at IT EXPO.

For more:
- see 8x8's IT EXPO West announcements here and here

29/07/2009 - 8x8 posts net profit for fiscal Q1 2010

Business VoIP service provider 8x8 posted a net profit of $414,000 for its fiscal Q1 2010, up sharply from the $3.9 million loss it posted in its fiscal Q4 2009. The company reported it gained 2,907 new business customers for a net gain of 1,253 business subscribers as well in the quarter, showing strong growth despite the weak economy.

The company reported $15.6 million in revenue for the fiscal quarter, down slightly compared to the $15.8 million revenue it reported for its fiscal Q4 2009 and $16.3 million it reported for the same quarter a year ago. 8x8 said it plans a stock repurchase plan, in which it will buy back up to $2 million of its outstanding common stock.

"Demand for our hosted IP telephony solutions continues to grow, surpassing last quarter's record number of sales to new business subscribers," 8x8 Chairman and CEO Bryan Martin said in a statement. "This accelerating growth indicates our strategy of minimizing the upfront cost of entry for small businesses is working, making our services even more compelling in today's tenuous economic climate. We expect to report increased revenue and net income next quarter as a result of this strategy."

For more:
- see the press release here

11/06/2009 - M&A, venture funding in IP communications heating up

After a bone dry first quarter, it appears that the market for mergers and acquisitions and venture capital investment in the IP communications world is ramping up again. After BroadSoft formally announced its purchase of Sylantro in late December 2008, there were only two funding announcements and no significant acquisitions around IP communications until Acme Packet announced its purchase of Covergence for $23 million April 30.

Given the drastic economic downturn, it's not altogether surprising that investors and companies looking for acquisitions sat the first quarter out. But now that "green shoots" are beginning to appear and experts are forecasting a gradual economic turnaround, it looks like it's open season again on the M&A and VC front--there have been four acquisitions and three funding announcements since Acme bought Covergence six weeks ago.

Just this week, jaxtr was bought by SabSe Technologies and Natural Convergence announced it was buying NewStep Networks for its FMC technology. In May Avaya purchased contact center software maker Agile and Voxeo bought IMified for its IM API.

On the funding front, fring raised a Series C round, hosted VoIP play Telesphere raised $15 million, and Xcast Labs raised $2.7M, with all deals announced after May 1.

Garrett Smith, at Smith on VoIP, sees the acquisition trend continuing in mobile VoIP as companies that weathered the recession well look for bargain prices on their less fortunate peers. Start-ups or smaller companies with strong SIP technology or a compelling UC story could also be acquisition targets as the year goes on.

Rumors circulated in February that 8x8 might be a likely buyer, as the profitable company stockpiled more than $16 million without any other clear purpose. Voxeo, whose IMified buy was its third in 12 months, also could purchase another company with a strong tech set. The big tech companies with cash stockpiles, such as Cisco, Apple and Microsoft, could always poach an IP communications company, but it's difficult to see a clear place they'd make an investment to fit their current voice product lines.

Which companies do you think will be active in M&A in the second half of 2009? Is there a company you think will be targeted for acquisition? Shoot me an email or a tweet and we can discuss.

- Pete
@fiercevoip

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