Bloomberg this morning reported that experts expect 2012 merger and acquisition activity in the tech industry to likely surpass that of 2011, which saw nearly $200 million in deals, the most since 2007.

Last year's big deals, led by HP (NYSE: HPQ) acquiring Autonomy for $10.3 billion, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) buying Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI) for $12.5 billion and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) purchasing Skype for $8.5 billion generated a lot of headlines, but Bloomberg says this year, for a coupe of reasons, shapes up as even more interesting.

First, expect the creation of a flood of data-enough to fill Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s 2.7 billion iMacs to capacity, about 8 zetabytes, by 2015, based on Cisco's (Nasdaq: CSCO) Global Cloud whitepaper and another report from research firm IDC.

Cisco in November said it expects that some 57 percent of all workloads will be processed in the cloud by 2014, and expects total data center data flow will be close to 5 zetabytes by 2015, and that data center IP traffic will reach 402 exabytes per month. Global data center IP traffic, it wrote, will increase fourfold over the next five years, with data center IP traffic will growing at a compound annual growth rate of 33 percent from 2010 to 2015.

How to manage that data, access and use it and store it, is going to get M&A activity popping. While companies will continue to do in-house research and product develiopment, the reality is that they can move forward more aggressively by acquiring the technology that fits their needs, saving them time and money in the long run.

ShoreTel's acquisition last week of M5 Networks (see ShoreTel acquires M5 Networks for $160M as it looks to develop cloud business) is an example of exactly that. The $160 million price tag brings ShoreTel the near-instant ability to add cloud solutions to its repertoire, bringing in new customers--M5 has some 2,000 clients of its own at the time of the deal--and new markets.

"For us to build this expertise would have taken time and investment and would certainly have involved distraction and therefore risk to our current business," said ShoreTel CEO Peter Blackmore. "We therefore determined the best way to enter this market quickly and establish a strong position is to find a company with a proven business model, a significant recurring revenue stream, a good management team and then bringing that organization into ShoreTel as a new business unit."

Privately held M5 itself made a pair of major acquisitions recently, in April buying contact center software vendor Callfinity, and in November 2010 buying hosted VoIP provider Geckotech.

"The speed at which technology innovation moves is such that you can't miss a step," Jon Woodruff, the San Francisco-based co-head of technology investment banking at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the industry's top adviser on deals last year, told Bloomberg. "Every tool has to be used for speed and nimbleness sake, and M&A is one of those significant tools."

The second major factor in M&A, obviously, is credit availability and cash on hand. Both seem to be in adequate supply, with many companies now looking at the hoard of cash they stockpiled during the past couple of year's uncertain economic conditions.

Bloomberg estimated corporate cash levels are up 21 percent to $513 billion this year, according to the Morgan Stanley Technology Index.

Cisco, for example, has some $44.4 billion in cash on hand and has been actively buying companies for their technology (some 150 so far) in recent years. HP has just over $8 billion, although chief executive Meg Whitman said that while it's not looking for any major deals, it's open to acquisition.

Google, with $44.6 billion on hand, is likely to continue the dozen-plus-a year acquisitions it makes, while cash-hoarding Microsoft, with $51 billion, also is expected to play more aggressively in the cloud.

Apple traditionally hasn't been a big player in corporate sales, so expecting it to dabble in M&A with an eye toward a bigger piece of the cloud might be counterintuitive. But with its iPad making huge inroads in business, and its already substantial investment in the consumer cloud with its iCloud play, perhaps it's not such a stretch any more. And, it's got a whopping $97.6 billion on hand.

As more cash has been accumulated, the values of a number of potential acquisition targets have declined.

Acme Packet;s (Nasdaq: APKT) slide in the market last week (see Acme Packet tumbles as Q4 falls short of expectations), exacerbated its woes; it has lost a third of its market value since October... and it's the leading enterprise SBC vendor in the space. You can add companies like F5 Networks, Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) and several others to the list of firms that have seen huge chunks of valuation fall away, making them appealing targets.

Cisco releases its earnings Wednesday. If it has a strong enough showing, as it's expected to, perhaps we'll see the company kick off some new M&A activity.--Jim

After four straight quarters of earnings bonuses for investors, Acme Packet (Nasdaq: APKT) laid its second profit egg in a row today, reporting fourth quarter non-GAAP EPS of 26 cents, missing Wall Street expectations by 2 cents and falling 40 percent off its earnings a year ago. The market reacted quickly, dropping the company's share price by 10 percent in after hours trading.

The company said rising costs and a soft market in North America, where service providers were reining in capex, were to blame.

Those conditions are likely to persist, said CEO Andy Ory, during an earnings call in which he predicted more woe in the year ahead, growth of just 10 percent compared to Wall Street estimates of nearly double that. The company sad it expects full-year profits of 96 cents to $1 a share, below the $1.24 expected by analysts.

"This reflects a slowdown in capex in the second half of the year and delays caused by consolidation activities among various service providers," Ory said. "We don't expect the North American capex environment to improve in the first half."

Acme reported $83 million in revenue for the quarter, missing expectations of $85.2 million. Total revenue in 2011 was $307.3 million, an increase of 33 percent compared to $231.2 million in 2010.

In January, Acme Packets share price tumbled some 20 percent after the company downgraded guidance for the year, blaming a turbulent service provider market in North America then, too.

"Outside of the North American service provider market, Acme Packet continued to perform very well--particularly in our enterprise business as well as in our Europe and Latin America businesses," Ory said at the time. Unlike today, however, Ory took a positive note on the future, saying:"Looking ahead, we believe we are very well positioned to leverage the broad, multi-year, secular growth drivers associated with the global transition from TDM to IP for real time communications like voice and video."

The enterprise session border controller (SBC) market was busy earlier in 2011, seeing a 55 percent jump in the first quarter. Hosted unified communications and SIP trunking were among factors that played a role in the growth. As in the service provider SBC segment, Acme Packet is the lead dog in the enterprise market, with Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) in second place, followed by Ingate and Sipera.

The enterprise SBC market, however, remains fragmented below that top tier, which means declining prices may loom.

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

Related articles:
Acme Packet stock takes a hit as it lowers guidance for year
Acme Packet launches first SBCs to be qualified under Microsoft's new Enterprise SBC category in UCOIP
Acme Packet E-SBCs integrated in to HP's UC solutions

Session Border Controller stalwart Acme Packet (Nasdaq: APKT) reports that it is going to miss the mark on its earlier fourth quarter guidance, a victim of a turbulent service provider market in North America.

The Wednesday said sales for the year would come in at $308 million to $310 million, missing its earlier guidance of $315 million to $320 million; fourth quarter revenues are expected to range between $84 million to $86 million.

Pre-share earnings on a non-GAAP basis for 2011 will be between $1.03 and $1.05, compared to its earlier outlook of between $1.14 and $1.18.

Acme Packet's stock stumbled some 20 percent on the news but has begun to recover somewhat today.

"Outside of the North American service provider market, Acme Packet continued to perform very well--particularly in our enterprise business as well as in our Europe and Latin America businesses," said Andy Ory, president and CEO of Acme Packet, Inc. "Looking ahead, we believe we are very well positioned to leverage the broad, multi-year, secular growth drivers associated with the global transition from TDM to IP for real time communications like voice and video."

The company will focus on improving its visibility and the level of predictability in the business in the backdrop of the current North American service provider capital expenditure environment.

The enterprise session border controller (SBC) market was busy earlier in 2011, with the seeing a 55 percent jump in the first quarter. Hosted unified communications and SIP trunking were among factors that played a role in the growth. As in the service provider SBC segment, Acme Packet is the lead dog in the enterprise market, with Cisco Systems in second place, followed by Ingate and Sipera.

The enterprise SBC market, however, remains fragmented below that top tier, which means declining prices may loom.

For more:
- see this release

Related articles:
Infonetics: SBC market a $1B business by 2015; Acme Packet top vendor
Acme Packet launches first SBCs to be qualified under Microsoft's new Enterprise SBC category in UCOIP
Acme Packet E-SBCs integrated in to HP's UC solutions
Acme Packet expands SBC lead with new PLDT deal

Talk about dominating... new research from Infonetics shows that 96 percent of service providers asked to pick the top two global SBC vendors named Acme Packet (Nasdaq: APKT), and 26 percent of respondents named only the Bedford, Mass.-based company.

Infonetics Research, in its recently released "SBC Deployment Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey," also said the SBC market, grew 45 percent in 2010 to $271 million, as IP voice traffic continued to grow. The segment should hit $1 billion by 2015, Infornetics said, driven by fixed-mobile convergence and wireless access.

"Though traditionally deployed in fixed-line networks for residential and business VoIP service access (including trunking), the use of session border controllers for interconnection between service providers continues to expand as the world's voice networks increasingly go all-IP," said Diane Myers, directing analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research. "Our latest survey confirms that two of the biggest growth areas for new SBC deployments over the next two years are fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) and wireless access."

The research firm said SIP trunking is the No. 1 SBC application used by service providers and will continue to be through 2013, followed by interconnecting to other service providers and residential VoIP.

For more:
- see this release

Related articles:
Research: Interoperability issues still hold back SIP trunking adoption
Metaswitch jumps into crowded SBC market; Mitel will stick with single-tier model
SBC market heats up in Q2, attracts new vendors
Acme Packet E-SBCs integrated in to HP's UC solutions
Acme Packet expands SBC lead with new PLDT deal

Acme Packet (Nasdaq: APKT) this week unveiled its Net-Net session director enterprise Session Border Controller (E-SBC) solutions for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Lync Server 2010. Acme Packet is the first company to be qualified as part of the new Enterprise SBC category in Microsoft's Lync Server Unified Communications Open Interoperability Program, which is designed to ensure customers can easily setup, support and use qualified telephony infrastructure and services in conjunction with Microsoft's unified communications software, including Lync Server and Exchange Server.

Acme Packet E-SBCs are designed to complement Lync Server by delivering advanced SIP features and protecting investments in legacy telephony infrastructure, said Kapil Sharma, principal group program manager for Microsoft.

"With Lync Server, Microsoft has successfully extended the power of unified communications to embrace desktop voice and video communications," stated Mark Vella, vice president of business development for Acme Packet. "The new E-SBC category in the UCOIP program recognizes the important multivendor interoperability and control functions offered by E-SBCs in IP communications environments, and we're excited to be the first qualified E-SBC in the program."

For more:
- see this release

Related articles:
Acme Packet E-SBCs integrated in to HP's UC solutions
Acme Packet expands SBC lead with new PLDT deal
Acme Packet SBC 'key' to Hipcom's business communications expansion

Level 3 Communications has launched a managed session border controller (SBC) for the enterprise, promising enhanced network security by establishing a "security guard" at the border of a customer's IP network. The company also said the service will provide traffic normalization as enterprises unlock the cost efficiency and scalability of IP voice technology. The new service is being offered in conjunction with Level 3 Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Trunking using an Acme Packet Net-Net SBC.

The company said the service also will provide enterprises with increased interoperability, quality-of-service management and detailed reporting.

"Our enterprise customers are increasingly reliant upon converged communications solutions, which enable them to combine voice, video and data services over a single platform," said Sara Baack, senior vice president of Voice Services for Level 3. "By providing managed SBC with our SIP trunking solution, we are enabling enterprises to confidently and securely transition to network platforms that help them capitalize on the benefits of converged communications.

Baack said the service protects against attacks, translates between different communications protocols and helps ensure network traffic efficiency.

Level 3 is working with Acme Packet, which, Baack said, "enables us to further differentiate our SIP trunking solution and offer our enterprise customers a secure, dependable and comprehensive solution in an increasingly interconnected and competitive global marketplace."

For more:
- see this release

Interoperability is necessary for quality assurance as well as the proliferation of consumer choice. Without it, companies would be forced to stick with devices and services from only one provider. Luckily companies in our industry do work to get interoperable and the latest is Acme Packet passing interoperability tests with Microsoft.

The latest interoperability news is that Acme Packet's Net-Net Session Border Controls have passed third party testing company TekVizion's IP Trunking interoperability tests for the Microsoft Communications Server 2007 R2. The test was part of Microsoft's Unified Communications (UC) Open Interoperability Program meant to insure that Microsoft customers would get seamless setup, service and support from partners using Microsoft's UC offerings.

The UC OIP qualification will allow AcmePacket to offer their SIP trunking services to small-, medium- and large-businesses integrated with the OCS system. The services can be deployed over Verizon's IP trunking infrastructure.

For more:
- read the article

Related news:
Acme Packet launches 3 new SIP solutions
Acme Packet deploys over 10K SBCs

Even the Department of Defense (DoD) is getting in on unified communications (UC). Avaya's Government Solutions arm just completed its first end-to-end VoIP call over the DoD's Global Information Grid.

The call was a field evaluation of the Real Time Services Unified Communication program using new technology meeting the heightened requirements for quality of service and security needed by the DoD. The new tech being tested included the DISA's Multi-Function Softswitch on the DoD's Defence Switch Network. The communications were being tested on a new protocol called Assured Services-Session Initiation Protocol (AS-SIP)--a beefed up DoD version of civilian SIP with more security features.

Avaya Government Solutions worked with Acme Packet on the test to provide the secure VoIP communications infrastructure and General Dynamics Information Technology for the system integrator. The AS-SIP demo calls were completed between Scott Air Force Base in Illinois and Lackland Air Force Base in Texas across the DoD's IP-based backbone network.

For more:
- read the article

Related news:
Avaya CEO talks Flare tablet
Avaya reveals new Android-based tablet device and UC solution called Flare
Avaya channel partner NACR has Sipera secure enterpise communication solutions

Remember when 'Intel Inside' was the easy way to know if a computer was going to be fast enough for your needs? Well what if your network element had a stamp to let you know that you were going to get the right session border control (SBC) elements with whatever device you were picking up?

Acme Packet has come up with a variation on this idea to get their Net-Net SBC into the hands of customers everywhere: make it easy to embed the Net-Net OS-E SBC into network elements at the enterprise border and let IP communication solution providers stamp a "Powered by AcmePacket" label on the side.

The new initiative truly expands the territory of Acme Packet's SBC solutions, putting them in the hands of SMBs and small contact centers. In addition, the program enables IP communications infrastructure providers to embed SBC software in a wide range of hardware platforms such as IP PBXs, unified communications (UC) servers, multiservice business gateways, firewalls and routers, allowing for an SBC solution that occupies a smaller footprint on the customer premise.

For more details:
- read the release

Related news:
Acme Packet adds FMC to its Net-Net SG
Calltrade employs Acme Packet Net-Net SBC

Acme Packet has upgraded its Net-Net Security Gateway (SG) after seeing some major growth figures for the fixed mobile convergence (FMC) market.

The Net-Net SG is getting some new enhancements so that it can cater to the FMC market. What use is your VoIP system if everyone wants to use their mobile phones? Enter FMC and suddenly everyone's mobile is also their VoIP/UC handset. The SG will enable service providers to scale their FMC services delivered using IP-based consumer and enterprise femtocell, picocell and WiFi access points. The system is a multi-service gateway which can secure voice and data delivery over untrusted Internet and WiFi networks to the aforementioned femto's and pico's as well as to dual-mode endpoints. The Net-Net SG supports multiple consumer and enterprise FMC applications, including femtocell and picocell access as well as dual-mode handsets from UMA and SIP clients.

The company quotes an Infonetics Research report that shows that the multiservice security gateway market will be a $1.6 billion opportunity from 2010 to 2014. Acme Packet believes their enhancements address critical security, service reach and management challenges that have arisen for service providers moving to bigger commercial FMC deployments.

For more:
- read the release

Related news:
Acme Packet launches 3 new SIP solutions
Acme Packet deploys over 10K SBCs

Friday before Memorial Day Weekend, Genband let out the news that its purchase of Nortel CVAS had finally been completed and that they'd be releasing more news this week on what that means for the company. Genband held an all-company meeting making a few executive announcements and hinting at their future plans.

Jeff Townley--who has worked at Nortel CVAS for 26 years as part of their global operations team--was named Genband's new president of operations. Townley seems to be the only major Nortel executive appointment announcment. Genband did announce a new Chief Financial Officer, but that candidate came from outside the companies. Daryl Raiford comes from Freescale Semiconductor to be the new CFO bringing his Fortune 500 experience to a company that just grew exponentially larger overnight.

Some interesting things to note: six years ago Genband had 80 employees, now with the Nortel CVAS buy it has 2,200 as well as 800 contractors! Take that army of workers and combine that with CEO Charlie Vogt's statement to Light Reading that the company plans to improve on their SBC offerings and go after Acme Packet. Guantlet thrown.

For more:
- read this article
- and this one from Connected Planet
- also read about day one here at Light Reading

Related articles:
Genband and Nortel CVAS complete deal
GENBAND's Nortel CVAS purchase: Good or bad for business?
Nortel CVAS gets top marks again in VoIP market
Bankruptcy courts approve Nortel CVAS sale to GENBAND
GENBAND bids on Nortel's CVAS

Acme Packet announced that Switzerland-based wholesale VoIP provider Calltrade Carrier Services AG has deployed Acme Packet's Net-Net 4500 session border controller (SBC).

With the help of the Net-Net SBC, Calltrade will monitor and enforce service levels. The company also plans to use Acme Packets Net-Net OS to help expand its service footprint--using the solution interoperate with other service providers.

As a VoIP services wholesaler with a worldwide network of service providers and phone card providers, Calltrade routes traffic from its various points of presence throughout the world. Its International Interconnect service handles 9 billion call minutes per year which means monitoring quality of service is not only important, but also a huge task.

For more:
- read the release

Related articles:
Acme Packet launches 3 new SIP solutions
Acme Packet launches new SBC for service providers and enterprises
Acme Packet deploys over 10K SBC

Acme Packet just announced their newest session border control product--the Net-Net 3820. The Net-Net 3820 is targeted at small to mid-sized IP communications service providers as well as mission-critical enterprise and contact center applications.

Building on the capabilities of the original Net-Net 3800 platform, the Net-Net 3820 supports single or dual hot-swappable AC or DC power supplies while doubling the session capacity of the Net-Net 3800 from 4,000 to 8,000 sessions. It can be configured as a Net-Net Session Director, a decomposed Net-Net Signaling Firewall or a session routing proxy.

"Tier 2 and tier 3 service providers require cost-effective, carrier-grade solutions for deploying next-generation services. At the same time, today's demanding enterprise VoIP, unified communications and IP video conferencing applications require high-availability platforms to ensure business continuity," said Seamus Hourihan, executive vice president of marketing and product management for Acme Packet in the release. "The Net-Net 3820 offers service providers, enterprises and contact centers a highly flexible, NEBS-compliant SBC platform for trusted, first-class interactive communications across IP network borders."

Acme Packet recently hit a benchmark of shipping its 10,000th SBC unit and signing on its 1,000th customer. In a release, the company detailed that it has about 200 enterprise customers and about 800 service providers deploying its devices.

For more:
- read the release

Related articles:
Acme Packet launches 3 new SIP solutions
Acme Packet deploys over 10K SBCs
Acme Packet announces low-end SBC for enterprises
Acme Packet launches 3 new SIP solutions
Skype leverages AcmePacket's Net-Net SBCs for SIP beta

While the last twelve months may not have been pretty for many telecom vendors, Acme Packet grew its customer base by 48 percent during that period. The company just shipped its 10,000th SBC unit and has signed on its 1,000th customer.

In a release, the company detailed that it has about 200 enterprise customers and about 800 service providers deploying its devices. Over the last two years Acme Packet has doubled the number of Net-Net session border controls it has deployed. The company claims the increase is due "a broad set of emerging, market driving services for wireline, wireless and cable service providers around the world."

Their 1,000th customer was an enterprise healthcare services organization which they believe is a great example of a trend that sees enterprise, contact center and government organizations deploying SBCs to help meet critical security, interoperability, service assurance and regulatory compliance challenges while launching IP communications systems.

For more:
- read the release

Related articles
Acme Packet announces low-end SBC for enterprises
Acme Packet launches 3 new SIP solutions
Skype leverages AcmePacket's Net-Net SBCs for SIP beta

Although the service provider VoIP equipment market was down 28 percent in 2009, the industry's last quarter was led by the steady sales of session border controllers (SBC) says a new report from Infonetics, Q4 Service Provider VoIP Equipment and Subscribers. Q4 2009 was the third consecutive quarter of stable revenue.

Despite being down for the year, the revenue for the VoIP equipment market did show a comeback being up 2.7 percent over Q3 09. According to the release: "The migration to native IP sped up during the past 12 months due to the acceleration of TDM access line loss, resulting in significant declines in TDM-related equipment, particularly traditional trunk media gateways and softswitches."

The report noted four vendors who stood out for growing revenue in 2009 with Metaswitch pulling in sales from trunk media gateways and softswitches, Acme Packet providing SBCs, Radisys moving media servers, and BroadSoft dealing in voice application servers. The report also highlighted that GENBAND's takeover of Nortel's CVAS unit will spur new changes in the VoIP vendor landscape.

For more:
- read the release

Related articles
Skype leverages AcmePacket's Net-Net SBCs for SIP beta
Infonetics: VoIP equipment revenue steady in Q3; IMS expectations
Infonetics: Carrier VoIP equipment spend drops, IMS up

AcmePacket announced today three new solutions to help service providers with simplifying and scaling IMS, Rich Communications Suite and next-generation network service delivery networks.

The Net-Net SIP Multimedia-xpress (SMX) offers a simple single system RCS IMS-equivalent or NGN delivery platform delivering SIP services like basic voice to RCS services like enhanced address book, messaging and content sharing for small roll-outs. Tagging on to that release are the Net-Net 4500 Session-aware Load Balancer and Net-Net SBC Cluster which help scale the Net-Net SMX solution or any other Acme Packet access SBC deployment to 2 million subscribers from a single IP address for SIP signaling. Lastly, the Net-Net Route Manager Central manages routes within Acme Packet's Open Session Routing (OSR) architecture--up to 2 million routes per SBC.

Joe McGarvey, principal analyst, IP Services Infrastructure for Current Analysis, described the new solutions "as fast-track and cost-efficient options for delivering voice, RCS and other SIP-based communication services."

For more details:
- check out the release

Related articles
Acme Packet retains SBC crown
Acme Packet adds new capabilities to Net-Net Session Router
Acme Packet buys Covergence Inc. for $23M

In 2009 it was hard to look through VoIP news and not bump into another announcement about a SIP or Unified Communications (UC) deal. Both items have gained momentum and are becoming the rule in the VoIP world. According to Infonetics, SIP trunking service revenue is expected to have an 89 percent compound annual growth rate from 2008 to 2013! In the same report they predict that hosted UC services would "take off," with worldwide revenue doubling over the next four years. Sounds like smart money is on these two areas of IP communications.

A key indicator of UC's coming dominance was Cisco announcement of a major push to corner the collaboration market with new products, reseller options and licensing packages for its unified communications solutions. Cisco pegged the value of the UC market at a whopping $34 billion! A study in October carried out about Frost & Sullivan--commissioned by Cisco and Verizon--found that collaboration tools like VoIP, instant messaging, and high-definition video meetings resulted in cost savings averaging four times the return on investment for firms using the IP platforms. Frost and Sullivan surveyed 3,662 decision makers in small- and medium-sized business as well as enterprises in various parts of the world, and found that 44 percent had deployed some form of unified communications already. According to an ABI Research report on Unified Communications, uptake is on a 'steeply rising curve.' ABI's report predicted that spending on UC would rise from the lowly sum of $302 million in 2008 to $4.2 billion by 2013. Just recently, Adtran also threw its hat into UC arena.

SIP was also a constant source of potential for the industry with a number of companies launching SIP solutions. Acme Packet and BroadSoft teamed for a SIP trunking offering. They claimed that a SIP trunking offering can raise a company's average revenue per customer and reduce churn by providing value-added services to connectivity offers. Ingate and Dialogic launched a SIP offering as well. Then JAJAH, Microsoft inked a SIP deal. Skype for SIP became a major part of Skype's plan to offer businesses its services. Even Sprint got into the action when it made its SIP trunking generally available to OCS clients. The technology seems to follow the line of upgrades that will help companies save money in these hard economic times.

A report in October continued to show that SIP was indeed catching on finding that many companies have deployed VoIP within their organizations, but they are still using legacy TDM to connect to the PSTN. The report stated that as technology upgrades start up again, SIP trunking will come to replace the legacy TDM technology. By 2010 SIP trunking will be the second most commonly deployed trunking type.

Despite the economy, the VoIP and UC market had a few big buys. Some were fraught with negotiation, litigation or last minute actors swooping in from nowhere. Here are a few notable deals worth noting in 2009:

Avaya buys Nortel ES - In June, Nortel began selling off its various units and it was only a matter of time before companies began stalking its VoIP assets. Initially, analysts saw Nokia Siemens Networks, Sonus and Avaya as all logical bidders for Nortel's VoIP assets. Although rumors swirled that these would all be potential bidders (Analyst maintains Sonus will bid on Nortel's VoIP business), only Avaya really came out with a bid. Avaya's opening bid for Nortel's Enterprise Solutions Division of $475 million was announced July 20. Some thought more players would step up, but on Siemens Enterprise Solutions seemed to have made any challenging bids. Someone must have been bidding up the price, however, because Avaya eventually bought Nortel ES for $915M. Hopes of ending the auction began to suffer from regulations and protests with Verizon leading the charge to block Avaya's bid. Luckily a Judge rejected Verizon's challenge to Avaya-Nortel ES and Ok'd the deal and the deal cleared a number of governmental hurdles. The deal finally went through just days ago. Read more in "It's official - Avaya now owns Nortel ES."

Google buys Gizmo5 - Early into the year Gizmo5 was doing its mating dance to be acquired. Back in February the company deployed a way to gateway between its service and Skype called OpenSky, which allows SIP calls to be forwarded to Skype addresses through Gizmo5. The funny thing was when they launched the service they put a disclaimer at the bottom of their website: "OpenSky is NOT a service endorsed by Skype/Ebay but they should because it means even more Skype usage." Might as well have said BUY US!! (Read Gizmo5 builds (yet another) bridge to Skype for more on that.) And that almost did happen when Skype's founders and their company Joltid filed a lawsuit against Skype which would take away the essential software to run Skype. Skype thought about buying peer-to-peer VoIP startup Gizmo5 because it had a built-in user base and its software could replace the underlying framework of Skype. When Skype made a deal with their co-founders though, Gizmo5 was left in the wind. Then out of nowhere Google acquires Gizmo5, instead for $30 million. This move sent ripples through the online VoIP community as it meant Google was getting serious about VoIP.

Skype founders buy Skype - First Skype founders wanted to buy back company from eBay. But they didn't have enough capital until they started going to private equity companies in April and even then the bid was too low apparently. At the same time eBay began planning a 2010 IPO for Skype which the founders made moves to block legally. In August, Andreessen Horowitz, Netscape founder Mark Andreessen's investment firm was working with other firms to raise $2 billion to purchase Skype. The move was again blocked by a legal challenge from the co-founders. After blocking certain parties from purchasing Skype in the original deal the Skype founders were able to join the investors and buy back 14% and join the board of the company. The final deal was valued at $2.75 billion and sold a share to an investor group led by Silver Lake Investment group including Joltid Ltd. (the founders of Skype) and affiliates like Canada Pension Plan and Andreessen Horowitz. The deal gave the new investors 70 percent of the company while eBay will retain the remaining 30 percent. Read the final details in "eBay completes sale of Skype."

Acme Packet buys Covergence - Acme Packet announced in April it bought Covergence in a deal valued at roughly $22.8 million. Covergence provided software-based session border controllers for VoIP and UC to large enterprises. Acme Packet CEO Andy Ory said the Covergence acquisition fulfills his company's need for SIP trunking in their border control offerings.

KPN buys iBasis - KPN's takeover of iBasis seems like one of the more hostile purchases this year, although somewhat similar to Skype with all the litigation. Royal KPN N.V. saw the acquisition of its remaining stake in wholesale voice provider iBasis as an expansion opportunity too good to pass up--getting a wholesale provider of international long distance telephony and retail prepaid calling services for mobile operators. The two companies had merged in 2007, but KPN did not own iBasis outright. The offer was rejected with iBasis launching a complaint in the court to halt what it said was a "grossly inadequate" offer. KPN upped the ante to purchase rest of iBasis moving the bid from $1.55 to $2.25 per share. This was rejected again so KPN made a final offer on iBasis of $3 a share. The $3 offer was the sweet spot and KPN is reportedly closing the deal for iBasis.

Cisco buys Tandberg - Cisco Systems was reported to have bought Tandberg, the video conferencing equipment manufacturer, for $3 billion, according in October. The move enabled Cisco to grab some more video technology, which it has moved aggressively to bring in house. No so fast though as Tandberg shareholders drove a hard bargain and rejected the initial offer! Cisco then threatened to drop the Tandberg bid altogether in order to be fiscally prudent. After toying with the idea of walking away from the table, the networking giant raised the offer from $3 billion to $3.4 billion--an offer that Tandberg CEO encouraged shareholders to take. In the eleventh hour, they were able to get 89.1 percent of Tandberg shareholders to agree to their $3.4 billion buyout offer. They needed 90 percent but combined with Cisco's 2 percent share of the company already, they had enough.

More - In June, 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 Friday, Skype announced that they would be using AcmePacket's Net-Net OS-Enterprise session border controllers for its SIP beta offering. Acme Packet will be the sole SBC partner for Skype's SIP beta program.

By using Acme Packet's OSE SBC offering, Skype will be able to simplify the interoperability and feature compatibility of the Skype for SIP beta offering with enterprise IP-PBX equipment and next-generation unified communications platforms which utilize the SIP standard. "Deploying session border controllers from Acme Packet will help ensure interoperability between Skype for SIP and native SIP or SIP-enabled PBXs from leading hardware manufacturers" said Stefan Oberg, VP and General Manager of Skype for Business in the release.

Skype for SIP has been Skype's attempt to make it easier for small businesses to move into low-cost Skype-based calling. Using SIP means companies can usually use the hardware they already have thus lifting the barriers to entry often involved with launching a new IP communications system--buying various pieces of expensive hardware.

For more:
- read the release

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In a play to help service operators offload certain capabilities from their older Class 4 voice switching systems while they make the conversion to IP-based communications, Acme Packet has enabled--on their Net-Net Session Router--IP-based number portability services, trusted calling party name services, geo-redundant access to routing databases, and source-based SIP session routing through the use of the Electronic Number Mapping System (ENUM) protocol.

These new capabilities are aimed to help service providers make the transition from SS7 call routing to SIP-based session routing while still being able to offer their traditional voice services. One of the key features of this offering is the network of databases and services using industry-standard ENUM, SIP and DNS protocols that the Net-Net SR system uses to make routing decisions within the core IP network or to the PSTN and other IP networks.

Read more about the Net-Net SR's new features:
- see the release

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As the H1N1 flu virus continues to surface in cities and towns across the United States, officials are encouraging businesses to examine their operations and construct a strategy for maintaining business continuity in the face of a potentially absent workforce. Bolstering telecommunications infrastructure with a hosted IP telephony solution like the 8x8 Virtual Office business phone service is one way a company can maintain its day to day operations even when employees are forced to remain home due to office closings or school shutdowns.

On September 18, 2009, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released "It's Not Flu as Usual," an H1N1 preparedness guide written to provide businesses of all sizes with suggestions on how to keep employees healthy and maintain business operations during the upcoming flu season. "Absenteeism would be the central issue for businesses to wrestle with during a pandemic," said Ann Beauchesne, the Chamber's vice president of National Security and Emergency Preparedness. "Business leaders and managers should focus on reducing the transmission of the H1N1 flu in the workplace -- including encouraging sick employees to stay home -- and maintaining business continuity."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce guide encourages businesses to establish policies and practices, such as flexible worksites (e.g., telecommuting) and flexible work hours (e.g., staggered shifts) to increase the physical distance between employees and others if local public health authorities recommend the use of social distancing strategies. The Chamber also advises companies to ensure they have the information technology and infrastructure needed to support multiple workers who may be able to work from home.

According to IP communications service provider 8x8, Inc., one way to facilitate a work from home, business continuity strategy is to put a flexible, Internet-based phone system in place that has the capability to, on the drop of a dime, accommodate a mobile, geographically dispersed workforce.

"Deploying a hosted IP telephony solution like 8x8 Virtual Office is one very simple, but significant, step a business can take to ensure business continuity within their telecommunications architecture," said 8x8 Chairman & CEO Bryan Martin. "Many of our customers have built their business continuity procedures around the plug and play capabilities of our service, and the capability and low cost of deploying backup phones and services to a contingent workforce at locations remote to their primary operations. These phones and the contingent workforce would be deployed in the event that primary operations are unable to continue due to the number of absent employees during an H1N1 outbreak at the workplace."

Hosted IP telephony solutions incorporate VoIP technology and use ordinary broadband Internet connections, instead of old-fashioned PSTN copper wire alternatives tied to premise-based PBX hardware, to transmit phone calls and enable business class calling features. Because these Internet connections are ubiquitous and not limited to a specific physical or geographic location, employees can access their company's phone network from any broadband-enabled location, whether it's a home office or regional office located anywhere in the world. IP telephony users can simply unplug their IP desktop phone from one Ethernet jack and plug it into another without losing any of the features or functionality of the service.

"Businesses today are relatively uneducated about the choices they have when it comes to telecommunications services and the associated costs," Martin continued. "Advancements in IP technology now allow companies to function in ways they never imagined possible for less than half the cost of their existing legacy solution. Given the potential effects of an H1N1 outbreak and the subsequent need for a nimble and timely response, now might be the best time for companies to examine the capabilities, effectiveness and cost of their current business phone solution."

8x8 announces that OfficeMax is offering the 8x8/Aastra co-branded 6755i IP business phone, bundled with the 8x8 Virtual Office suite of business phone services, at approximately 400 select OfficeMax retail locations in the United States and online.

The plug-and-play 8x8/Aastra 6755i IP phone serves as an endpoint for the 8x8 Virtual Office hosted IP PBX business phone service, currently in use by over 17,000 businesses. 8x8 Virtual Office provides businesses with a complete, enterprise class phone system at a fraction of the cost of a traditional PBX and roughly half the cost of traditional business phone service. The 8x8/Aastra IP phones plug into any broadband Internet connection to allow users to immediately make or receive calls without performing any network configuration or firewall manipulation. In addition, the 8x8/Aastra IP phones deliver enhanced features including corporate directory display and lookup, extension dialing and transfers, intercom paging, shared line appearance and an embedded XML browser.

Aastra USA will supply inventory of the 6755i Virtual Office IP phone to OfficeMax, while 8x8 provisions and manages the 8x8 Virtual Office service. In addition to full duplex speakerphone functionality, programmable softkey appearances and LCD display screens, all models support "Power over Ethernet" and come equipped with dual auto-sensing switched Ethernet ports to eliminate additional wiring for a computer and simplify installations.

While some areas of the telecom equipment industry are suffering in the difficult economic climate, the session border controller market does not appear to be one of them. Market share leader Acme Packet raised its guidance again for the year and reported record revenue of $32.9 million for the quarter, which was up 6 percent from Q1. The company's GAAP net income fell to $1.7 million, however, down from $2.8 million in the first quarter.

The company raised its full-year revenue outlook to $130 million to $134 million, up from previous guidance of $128 million to $134 million. Acme Packet also showed a strong balance sheet, as it generated $14.7 million in cash from operations during the quarter and ended Q2 with $155 million in cash and cash equivalents.

The company purchased Covergence in April, adding an additional lower cost SBC product in the process. Will Acme Packet whip out the checkbook again in Q3 with the cash store it has?

For more:
- see the press release here 

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Acme Packet announced today two European carrier customer wins for IMS deployments, according to news releases. Germany's Telefonica O2 Germany and Telnor Sweden both will deploy Acme Packet Net-Net 4000 series session border controllers at access and interconnect borders for IMS services.

Telefonica said in the release it plans to use the Acme Packet gear for IMS-based residential VoIP services, while Telnor plans to use the Net-Net SBCs for hosted business unified communications on its IMS infrastructure. Seamus Hourihan, vice president of marketing for Acme Packet, said IMS went through a stage where hype, rather than actual deployments, ruled the day, but he said that now IMS has arrived.

"We made IMS announcements four years ago initially, and at first, it suffered from more hype than actual realization, like any new architecture," Hourihan said. "But now Acme Packet is involved in more than 100 IMS projects, and most Tier 1 carriers have some sort of IMS project at some point of development."

While Hourihan acknowledged that the majority of current deployments of IMS are in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, he said interest in Latin America and North America continues to grow as well. 

For more:
- see the Telefonica O2 Germany press release here
- see the Telnor Sweden press release here 

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Infonetics Research predicted enterprise session border controller revenue will increase 49 percent annually for the next five years, according to a report the firm released Tuesday on the enterprise SBC market.

The report expected increased adoption of SIP trunking to drive the market growth, which the report said should bode well for leading SBC vendors Cisco and Acme Packet. The report's author also said he expected the SBC market will not suffer the same "economic malaise" in 2009 as other telecom equipment niches.

Avian Securities analyst Catharine Trebnick also changed her rating Tuesday on Acme Packet from neutral to positive, as she expected the SBC market growth to be a boon for Acme Packet's bottom line. Acme Packet recently increased its share in this market with its acquisition of competitor Covergence. 

For more:
- see the press release here
- see Trebnick's research note on Acme Packet here 

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