Plantronics (NYSE: PLT) Tuesday reported lower profit in its third quarter than a year ago, but still beat Wall Street's expectations, setting UC revenue records along the way.

Net income for the quarter was $30.9 million, or 71 cents a share, down slightly from $31.6 million, or 64 cents a share a year ago. Adjusted net income was 75 cents per share, topping analyst's forecasts of 68 cents per share, and topping last year's adjusted income of 66 cents per share. The lower profits were primarily due to Plantronic buying back some 2.1 million shares.

Revenue, meanwhile was $183.2 million, up slightly from $181.6 million during the same period a year ago.

Plantronics said it expected a strong fourth quarter, forecasting revenue of between $175 million and $180 million for the quarter, with net income of 63-68 cents per share. Analysts expected revenue of $1877.6 million and adjusted earnings per share of 67 cents.

During yesterday's earnings call, Ken Kannappan, Plantronics' president and chief executive, said the company set a record in the quarter for UC revenue, which saw 90 percent growth due to rapid adoption of UC globally. The company also saw 8 percent growth in office and contact center revenue.

"We continue to see broad adoption of UC across all size of enterprises in all major geographies," he said. "Our investments in UC continued to yield solid results. And in the first nine months of fiscal 2012, we made good progress in differentiating our product line, as well as making huge strides in our corporate marketing and brand positioning."

For more:
- see this release
- see this earnings call transcript from Seeking Alpha

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Plantronics app allows one-touch access to conference calls
Plantronics pushing deeper into UC market with new products
Study: UC adoption rejuvenating headset market revenues
Plantronics CEO talks to Forbes about UC

Contact center solutions vendor Zeacom said its Communications Center (ZCC) contact center software is now available for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Lync following a beta program that saw ZCC deployed at Lync sites in Northern Europe and Asia-Pacific.

ZCC helps organizations build out their help desk, call center or multimedia contact center to the Lync platform, and it currently has 4,000 customer sites worldwide. Targeting up to 400 seats on Lync, ZCC allows contact centers to control the delivery of every contact--from voice calls and email to SMS and social media alerts.

Zeacom use's Microsoft's native UCMA architecture and conferencing platform, allowing it to offer additional functionality. Zeacom offers solutions for multimedia contact centers, business process automation and unified communications.

For more:
- see this release

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VoiceCon 2009: Zeacom rolls out UC ROI calendar, brags about business
Zeacom, Cerium Networks in strategic alliance for contact centers, UC

Dear Partners,
Speedflow Communications, a developer of high quality VoIP Softswitch solutions, is pleased to announce a new release of the CallMax, proprietary Linux-based Class 5 Softswitch. Our team of developers worked hard to extend Softswitch functionality and optimize its work.

Holiday’s period is the real challenge for VoIP carriers and their softswitches. During the New Year and Christmas holidays people make lots of calls with their greetings and wishes.

However, our customers celebrated with no worry. We are justified in telling you that the MediaCore Softswitch showed 100% positive result during the holidays. The MediaCore users had thousands of active calls. Some of them had about 10 thousand active calls with almost 500 calls attempts per second. All the calls were correctly processed by the system.

LiveVox, a provider of private VoIP cloud and integrated contact center applications, today announced click-to-call manual dialing for cell phones that segregate cell phone numbers from predictive campaigns and allow agents to manually intervene in the decision to skip or call these numbers.

The LiveVox cloud contact center platform contains several core applications including ACD/PBX, predictive dialer, IVR, call recording and reporting. The platform also includes numerous, customizable compliance features that allow contact centers to increase efficiency and manage risks even as rules change. Since these features exist within the same multi-tenant cloud, all click-to-call manual dials are recordable, protected by time zone controls and generate real-time reports.

LiveVox continues to add to its inbound/outbound contact center compliance suite that includes:

• PCI certified, fully redundant multi-tenant architecture;
• Secure multi-carrier MPLS interoperability;
• Cell phone scrubs and click-to-call manual dialing;
• Account penetration settings;
• End-to-end PCI compliant payment lines;
• State dialing configuration GUI;
• Integrated call recording for inbound, outbound and manual dials;
• Manual dialing time zone controls;
• Real-time agent monitoring and reporting; and,
  
• DNC (Do-Not-Call) list scrubs

For more:
- see this release

Related articles:
LiveVox Records More Than 400 Percent

Interoperability--or the lack of same--in the videoconferencing segment has always been seen as a major hurdle to broad adoption of the technology. A new report on the struggles an Australian telehealth initiative designed to get rural doctors onboard with the technology serves as a pretty stark example of just how much the industry has dropped the ball.

The six-month-old program, a $7.2 million piece of a larger $620 million telehealth push, has seen 1,200 doctors apply for the $6,000 grants. The goal is for teleconferencing to host some 500,000 consultations by 2015, reducing the need for patients and doctors to travel. It's targeted specifically at GPs in remote areas who may not have access to specialists and experts in certain medical disciplines.

But critics say that doctors have, in many cases, been flummoxed by the technology. In some cases, it's been too complicated for doctirs to use easily. In others, it won't communicate with other videoconferencing software other doctors have downloaded.

''It's a great ... initiative but the doctors should have been provided with more support and guidance about how to implement the technology,'' the chief executive of Hunter Nursing, David du Plessis, said. ''They don't have time to go on to IT forums to sort it out, so they defaulted to Skype.''

The Miscrosoft (Nasdaq: MSF) video calling technology has worked better than some of the more complex technology, said the head of Australia's rural doctors association.

'There is a whole range of technologies and, in establishing video-conferencing, [doctors] are not going to go out and buy some extravaganza of a system, they are going to stick with the simple stuff,'' Dr. Paul Mara said.

Research suggests that enterprises, SMBs and even individuals are eager to adopt some form of videoconferencing. But, until it's simple and users are sure they're going to be able to reach each other with a quality product, you can be sure growth is going to be less than the industry is hoping for.

There, literally, isn't a week that goes by that someone doesn't ask me about videoconferencing--the technology, how easy it is to use and, generally, for a suggestion on what service is best. It's worrisome that docs in Oz have cast their vote.

Skype is the best choice? Really?--Jim

NewVoiceMedia has filed a patent for a product that contact center reps can use to gather customer information from the Internet in real-time, promising a big change in the call center experience. The U.K.-based company said the technology will allow agents to make use of real-time social media information as customer calls come in.

The patent, filed in the United Kingdom by NewVoiceMedia founder Richard Pickering, uses caller data to execute a search query using internal data repositories, partner sources, public services (like Experian) or other external resources like Google or Microsoft Bing. Results are then used to deliver targeted information to the receiving agent.

"This integration... will enable our customers' agents to quickly access huge amounts of callers' data from internal databases and the Internet," said Pickering. "Since many major social networks are now accessible to search engines such as Google and Bing, recent social media comments from or about the calling customer could be used to identify potential issues and opportunities enabling agents to be one step ahead of the game and offer a truly unique customer experience."

NewVoiceMedia's ContactWorld is an enterprise-class contact center based in the cloud. It counts customers in 14 countries on 5 continents.

For more:
- see this release

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Speedflow Communications is pleased to inform you about new release of the carrier-grade Class 4 MediaCore Softswitch (v. 2.24)

As is known, Christmas & New Year holidays are the rush period for VoIP providers. The average number of calls is being increased tremendously, hence, VoIP operators have a golden opportunity to raise their incomes.

But are you sure that your softswitch can process large volumes of traffic?

I'm not giving up on Apple. No way. But what I do like about Android is the true multi-tasking that it offers. Lately, I've been using my Androids and iPads more for multimedia and less for work. Being home helps, of course vs. the 32 days of business travel I did between mid-October through mid-November, but being home has given me the opportunity to test out connectivity between my various BlueTooth and Bonjour enabled devices.

One of the devices is the not yet available in the USA Huawei Media Pad which runs Android Honeycomb (3.2). It's a major upgrade from my Huawei IDEOS 7, but lacks the GSM phone capabilities that the IDEOS 7 has as the Media Pad is a data centric device much like the iPad. What I like about it most is the form factor. It's 1/3 smaller than the iPad and light. Given I plan to have some tailored suits and sport coats made in the new year, I'll have the tailor shape the inside pocket for it and use it as a modern day FiloFax or DayRunner with it's easy integration with Exchange via Touchdown for Tablets (beta) from NitroDesk.

Skype and Counterpath's Bria for SIP and GrooveIP for GoogleVoice makes it an ideal communications device, and apps like Spotify, Pandora (despite the bugs), XiiaLive and Radio Tunes Pro I can get all the music and radio I need, and just like my iPad which I use to stream to my Apple TV and connected speakers, the MediaPad and the Jawbone Jambox is a killer combination of music portablility on the go via BlueTooth (though 128K audio does have a buffer issue but that's BlueTooth not the MediaPad's limitation)

With it's HDMI output port and a cable this can connect to my monitors and widescreens as another playback or steaming video device. Since it's 1080p natively you get really true HD playback so again, it's a great media device, so I can put up with the lack of the real phone capabilites that I have in my Samsung Galaxy Tab P-1000 (and soon a Tab Plus.)

The size makes it a nice toss in the travel bag form factor, and with a good headset, a solid VoIP provider or Skype, I can still be in touch with all whom I need to be. 

Net net--options beyond iPad abound, and while the iPad apps and capabilities still win out for me, the Media Pad is an ideal device for the entertainment junkie, and like the Kindle Fire is a very good lean back device when I want to be AFK (away from the Keyboard) and in front of the TV and still be staying connected. 

Related articles

• Huawei announced the Springboard, a new android tablet coming to T-Mobile (android-tablet.org)
• Here Comes Android's Ice Cream Sandwich (andyabramson.blogs.com)
• Huawei MediaPad 7-inch Tablet Released In India (techfresh.net)
• Huawei Releases Pricing for New Smartphone, Tablet (pcworld.com)
• Huawei MediaPad tipped by FCC for T-Mobile (slashgear.com)
• Huawei's MediaPad Tablet Slated for China Release in Oct (pcworld.com)
• Huawei MediaPad to launch in October (ziggytek.com)

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) has rolled out a new solution, called CloudBand, that it says represents a new class of carrier cloud services, which will allow service providers to bring the benefits of the cloud to their own networks and business operations.

CloudBand brings together the computing power and flexibility of the cloud with the high performance, reliability and security of communications networks, putting carriers in an ideal position to offer a new range of high-performance cloud services to enterprises and consumers, said Alcatel-Lucent.

The company is hoping its new offering will be able to overcome the reluctance that enterprise customers, SMBs and governments have shown to invest heavily in cloud solutions. A September survey from SWC Technology Partners showed that one-in-five respondents said they were reluctant to push their operations into the cloud because of concerns over privacy and security.

Nevertheless, service providers have committed $11 billion to could investments in 2011, said Informa analyst Camille Mendler. And a play like Alcatel-Lucent's, one that focuses on control and better performance, could pay off.

CloudBand has two parts: the CloudBand Management System, delivering orchestration and optimization of services between the communications network and the cloud; and the CloudBand Node, which provides the computing, storage and networking hardware and associated software to host a wide range of cloud services.

Bringing the computing and communications network assets together will be a challenge in making the carrier cloud a reality. CloudBand features algorithms developed by Bell Labs to orchestrate the network, as well as computing and data storage elements distributed throughout the network. The result is a single, flexible service delivery and computing platform that can support a wide range of services. That, in turn, eliminates the need for dedicated hardware platforms for each individual service.

CloudBand will be available for deployment in the first half of 2012.

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

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Cloud growth offering opportunities across market segments
Survey says: cloud computing, telecommuting still struggling for foothold in mid-market
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Speedflow Communications is pleased to introduce the new MediaCore Softswitch customer from Australia. Innovative IT Pty Ltd is the rapidly growing Australian telecom provider. We are happy that they chose the MediaCore Softswitch as their platform for VoIP wholesale services. Our presence in Australia is very important as VoIP industry is highly developed in this region.

Alcatel-Lucent's OpenTouch video conferencing suite, previewed in April and scheduled to start shipping early in the first quarter, has arrived a little early, the company said, and is now generally available.

Built on Alcatel-Lucent's new Enterprise's converged communications architecture, the product leverages OmniPCX Enterprise, Genesys SIP solutions and Alcatel-Lucent carrier technologies. The OpenTouch architecture uses a SIP-based conversation layer, which is between the applications layer and server layer, to deliver multi-party, multi-device, multi-media collaborative conversations. The architecture can facilitate conversations on any network and on any end-point.

OpenTouch includes native conferencing capabilities, supports mixed media, and enables users to move freely between any device within the same conversation. For example, a conversation can begin via instant messaging, voice or text, and be escalated to a video call or team collaboration session. The system lets any user easily add or remove multiple participants as well as make other media connections or links available to participants.

The product is available in three packages, an appliance server based version--its Business Edition--that provides advanced telephony features with embedded unified communications capabilities pre-integrated on a single industry standard appliance server; a hosted edition on a blade server platform--its Business Edition Hosted--that delivers those features and capabilities in a premise version and features extended management functionalities; and its Multimedia Services, a software add-on to complement existing Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise communications servers.

For more:
- see this release

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Alcatel-Lucent gets $1.5B offer for Genesys, still has sputtering enterprise biz
Alcatel-Lucent offers video collaboration solution for SMBs, enterprise
Alcatel-Lucent's OpenTouch puts everyone in the same room virtually
Alcatel-Lucent, AudioCodes collaborate on SBC solution for mid-sized enterprises
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise focusing on UC in 2011

Call center tech vendor OAISYS has rolled out the latest iteration of its Talkument and Tracer call recording software.

The new version, 7.1, includes a cloud licensing service to enable automatic registration of an OAISYS recording system and the ability to apply additional licenses directly via the cloud; it also allows authorized users to view the live desktop activity of an agent and synchronized with live voice monitoring and gives businesses more information on callers by displaying a map that shows a caller's location based on physical address or longitude/latitude coordinate information.

"We make a point to stay in touch with our customer's evolving needs while concurrently keeping an eye on the dynamic technology evolution of the marketplace, and 7.1 shows tangible results of both efforts," said Brian Spencer, president of OAISYS.

The solution is compatible with systems from Avaya, Mitel, ShoreTel, Toshiba and others, as well as SIP-based communications services.

For more:
- see this release

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Panasonic is showcasing an extensive range of IP telephony solutions at AstriCon in Panasonic booth #204 at the Westin Westminster in Denver, Colorado, October 25-27.

As an AstriCon 2011 Gold sponsor, Panasonic is demonstrating a broad range of SIP telephones including SIP Cordless Phone Systems and KX-UT series which are interoperable with Asterisk's open source PBX. Panasonic's SIP telephones work with the Asterisk platform which offers both classical PBX functionality and advanced UC features.

In its seventh year, AstriCon is the longest running conference devoted to the Digium Asterisk communications platform. AstriCon brings together open source enthusiasts, from coders and system integrators to service providers and enterprise IT professionals, who are looking for an in-depth understanding of Asterisk open source technology.

Panasonic's SIP Phone Systems:

The Panasonic SIP Cordless Phone System is a small business communication solution that offers the flexibility of convenient expansion as a company grows. The KX-TGP500 system features a wall-mountable base unit and one cordless handset. Expandable up to six DECT 6.0 cordless handsets, the model supports up to eight phone numbers and three simultaneous calls. It boasts Wide Band Audio (G.722) and five hours Talk Time, 10 days Standby. Its elegant design features a white backlit large LCD on the handset and a Handset locator button on the base unit. It also has a handset speakerphone, 2.5mm headset jack and belt clip.

The KX-TGP550 model has all the features and benefits of the KX-TGP500 and adds a corded base unit with a large white backlit LCD, plus a Hands-Free Speaker phone, Handset Call Button on the base unit, and one-touch call transfer with Busy Lamp Indication.

Also on display, the Panasonic KX-UT series offers a cost-effective communications solution for businesses of all sizes that leverages the latest developments in Hosted and Open Source PBX technologies and is designed to complement a company's existing communication infrastructure. Most models feature two data ports so users can connect a second network device without the time and expense of running an additional Ethernet cable. The KX-UT series models are Power over Ethernet ready which eliminates the need for additional electrical adaptors. Wide-band, high-definition audio (G.722 codec) coupled with echo cancellation and an expanded acoustic chamber allows the KX-UT series to offer crisp sound quality for crystal clear conversation.

Panasonic is also previewing the new KX-UT670, a highly expandable corded SIP phone with a seven-inch color LCD touch screen function that will help to transform business communication. Additional key features include HD Voice (G.722), two Ethernet ports, 3-way conference calling, IP camera integration, full duplex speakerphone, 100 entry phonebook and PoE ready.

Unified communications and hosted, managed VoIP provider M5 Networks announced a new cloud-based analytic tool that gives businesses information about call-answer rates without having to install a sophisticated call center package.

Live Answer Service Metric supplies enables users to identify abandoned call rates, compare results between main lines and employee extensions and determine when their call volumes spike, how long their customers waited on hold or how frequently customers were forced to leave a voicemail message.

The service, currently in beta testing, is part of M5's Intelligence package, a suite of offerings that enables M5 clients to evaluate whether their phone system configuration is aligned with the business' sales and service objectives.

"It's no secret that people hate it when they try to call a business and are forced to work their way through an auto-attendant labyrinth, only to end up being greeted by voicemail," said Brent Barbara, ViP of Innovation and Integration for M5 Networks.  "This solution will enable our clients to see the rate at which calls are answered by a live person and provide information that ensures they impress prospects and deliver on service commitments to their clients."

For more:
- see this release

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VoIP companies among the fastest growing in the Inc. 5000

Speedflow Communications is pleased to make a HOT OFFER. CallMax Softswitch is available at new price. Moreover, Speedflow offers flexible interest-free installment plan. Take advantage of this opportunity and buy multifunctional Class 5 Softswitch on beneficial terms. Speedflow Communications also gives FREE TRIAL PERIOD before buying CallMax Softswitch. You can test it before making your final decision.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), which has been trying to slip out of its enterprise phone business for months, today confirmed last week's rumors that it's reached a deal with Permira Funds for its Genesys call center software business.

The $1.5 billion deal makes for a nice bump to Alca-Lu's sagging bottom line, but also leaves it with a somewhat unattractive left over in the form of its enterprise phone business. The Genesys business has by far been its crown jewel in the division, with revenues of $500 million last year. The deal for the 1,800 employee business includes continued support from Alcatel-Lucent's enterprise operation.

"Genesys is widely recognized as one of the world's leading providers of customer service software and contact center solutions, and we are excited by the long-term growth potential of this business," said Brian Ruder, partner at Permira. "With an exceptional brand, differentiated technologies and a blue-chip customer base, Genesys is well-positioned to continue to take advantage of the positive trends in its expanding markets."

The deal is subject to regulatory review in the U.S. and other countries, but is expected to close by the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012.

The negotiations between Alcatel-Lucent and Permira have been back-and-forth over the past couple of months as Permira initially looked at Alca-Lu's entire enterprise business, even reaching the point of exclusive negotiations that push Siemens Enterprise Communications, another potential bidder, to the back burner. Those talks broke down, reportedly over price, and drove Alca-Lu's battered stock down more than 8 percent.

Permira then brought its focus to just the call center segment, which Alcatel-Lucent acquired in 2000.

Selling the entire business, which includes VoIP, unified communications and network management products, as well as switches and router, would have been much preferred by Alca-Lu, which reportedly will now invest in the business to make it more attractive to bidders.

Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen is looking to pare down the company as he tries to turn it around.

For more:
- see this release

Related articles:
Report: Alcatel-Lucent makes deal to sell Genesys unit to Permira
Permira talks with Alcatel-Lucent focus now on Genesys

New research suggests that interoperability issues and a lack of standardization limit the overall adoption of SIP trunking. A study from Research and Markets said that while SIP trunking has seen steady adoption over the past five years, the adoption rate has not met predictions, hamstringing service providers from gaining deeper market penetration.

Infonetics Research, earlier this month, projected a 52 percent compound annual growth rate for SIP trunking between 2011 and 2015, saying it, along with hosted business VoIP, would help drive the VoIP services market to grow some 17 percent in 2011 alone.

But Research and Markets contends that while industry organizations like the SIP Forum and SIP Connect eventually will eliminate the need for multiple certifications on different platforms; service providers, in the meantime, would have to engage in costly and time consuming interoperability testing with platform vendors.

Still, channel partners are beginning to push SIP trunking to their customers more aggressively as they become more familiar with the technology, helping them to offer a more comprehensive package of services and solutions.

As technology and SIP trunking services reach the mass market because of their value proposition, service providers are continuously simplifying and automating the provisioning process to alleviate the cost and hassle of SIP trunking implementations. Improvements in service management and billing capabilities also are helping boost adoption.

For more:
- see this release

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Cloud-based videoconferencing provider Glowpoint, which launched its "Virtual Video Room" in February, is adding meeting control features, more content sharing capabilities and increased interoperability to the platform.

VVR 2.0 now allows a meeting host to optimize video for meeting participants and to adjust the screen layout for multipoint meetings in continuous or voice switched mode. Meeting hosts also can now add or drop meeting participants during the meeting, mute video and/or audio for individual participants and view the connection quality of individual participants, all features that most higher-end videoconferencing solutions contain. Glowpoint also has upgraded to allow customers to choose among seven different language options for the portal, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.

"We are delivering a more flexible, personal user experience, which we firmly believe will further drive usage," stated Anil Balani, SVP of product development.

VVR 2.0 users also can add Microsoft Lync and OCS users to meetings via a Cisco Video Communication Server (VCS) installed on the customer's network and managed from Glowpoint's OpenVideo cloud. VVR 2.0 also includes support for SIP based endpoints utilizing BFCP.

For more:
- see this release

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Rumors that Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) has agreed to sell its call center business to London private equity firm Permira Advisers pushed the firms stock priced up to its highest level in the past eight months.

The Financial Times reported Alcatel-Lucent has agreed to sell its Genesys division, a business it acquired in 2000, for $1.5 billion, and will make an announcement that the deal has been finalized in coming weeks.

Alcatel-Lucent and Permira have been negotiating a deal for Alcatel-Lucent's enterprise phone business for several months. In September rumors surfaced that those negotiations had broken down over price squabbles, and the focus had changed to a Genesys-only deal.

A deal for Genesys, instead of for the entire enterprise phone division, struck some analysts as problematic, since it's arguably the crown jewel of the unit. Selling the entire unit would have been more in-line with Alcatel-Lucent's needs.

The FT said Alcatel-Lucent now would likely invest more in its enterprise phone unit to make it more attractive to other bidders, foremost Siemens Enterprise Communications, which had been mentioned as one of its suitors earlier this autumn.

For more:
- see this FT report

Related articles:
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Trouble on the horizon for networking companies? Or, is it already here?
Alcatel-Lucent offers video collaboration solution for SMBs, enterprise

Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) today debuted its ET1 Tablet--its first Android-based tablet PC--which is its first tablet targeted at the enterprise.

The ET1 Tablet will be Motorola's first Android-based tablet.

The ET1 has a 7-inch color touchscreen and weighs 1.4 pounds. It can sport 32 GB of memory with a micro SDHC card. The ET1 has two USB interfaces, plus an HDMI-out slot, stereo speakers and dual microphones.

Its front and rear-facing cameras are among its features that set it up as a potential endpoint for videoconferencing. The front-facing camera includes 720p video capture; the main camera is a 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash.

Although it's currently shipping without Wi-Fi, that feature will be available later in the 4^th quarter.

The company is expected to offer the tablet for less than $1,000 and is gearing up for a full rollout in 2012.

For more:
- see this CDN article

Related articles:
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Why do credit card companies do the following:

1. Make you call in to tell them when you are leaving your market area? They already have my spending history. They know where I travel too based on prior usage patterns?  

2. Why do they want me to sign my card? Forgery is easier than asking for ID at the time of transaction yet they want you to sign the back of the card the moment it arrives. Funny thing is the cards that I signed in the past were cloned and forged. Cards without signature, they ask for my ID before approving the transaction face to face.

3. Make the type so small you can't read the call in numbers. I'm part of the aging population (over 50) and while I don't need glasses to read, smaller type is hard to decipher especially when the credit cards are on backgrounds of dark colors, the type is small and it's not in a nice contrasting color.

All of the above are usually called "security" proceedures if you ask. But instead of making things more secure, the companies are adding to customer frustration. The only company that is the exception is American Express. They simply think things through from the Cardmember experience first.

Thoughts?

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has had, for lack of a better word, a dodgy relationship with European regulators who have at times bristled at the brashness - and the overwhelming ubiquity - of the American company.

In 2004, European Union regulators hit the software giant with a record $613 million fine for violating EU antitrust laws. It competition commission ruled the company hadn't given rivals the information they needed to compete fairly in the server software market; and, they didn't like that Windows came bundled with Windows Media Player, which they ordered the company to stop doing.

Microsoft was hit with another $350 million fine in 2006for not licensing network communications technology, and smacked with another $1.35 billion fine in 2008 when the EU decided it had overcharged developers for access to Windows protocols in defiance of the remedies agreed upon in the earlier case.

Microsoft also was hit with an antitrust suit in 2007, when Opera Software complained to regulators that Microsoft was again being unfair in bundling a browser with its Windows OS. The company in 2009 agreed to ship a version of the operating system, Windows 7E, sans Internet Explorer 8.

Microsoft itself has tried to use the courts to help its business. In 2007, it supported the EU's investigation into Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) plan to buy DoubleClick.

More recently, in March, Microsoft asked European regulators to look into Google's actions in regards to its handling of online content, accusing the company of engaging in a "broadening pattern of walling off access to content and data that competitors need to provide search results to consumers and to attract advertisers." 

So, it should come as no surprise that Microsoft is facing yet more trouble in Europe.

This time, it's an Italian company that's raising a ruckus, taking issue with Microsoft's proposed $8.5 billion purchase of free VoIP provider Skype, saying again that the inclusion of the technology in its Windows OS is unfair. The company, Milan-based Messagenet, also is a VoIP provider and a competitor to Skype; it filed its complaint Sept. 20.

The company, as you'd expect, wants Skype unbundled from Windows. It's also taken the more unusual step of asking regulators to open up Skype's 124 million-strong Internet phone network to competitors' services by having Microsoft publish the Skype's computer coding to allow services to interconnect.

Messagenet contends that the merger will likely make the software even more interoperable than it is today.

"The first effects of the proposed merger will be an even more rigid approach to interoperability of Skype services so to exclude competitors from the market," the company wrote in its filing.

U.S. regulators, citing growing competition to Skype in the form of Google Talk, Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) FaceTime and others, have approved the deal, the largest takeover in Microsoft's history. It was widely believed that the EU would approve as well when it made its decision public Oct. 7.

The Messagenet suit may not totally derail the deal, but the approval by Oct. 7 is now far less certain.

"I would certainly say this kind of complaint, if it raises new issues that the commission has not previously considered, may derail the deal or, at least delay approval," one European antitrust lawyer told the New York Times.

So, will the EU approve the merger next month? Let me know what you think.-Jim

Vidyo has raised a further $22.5 million from venture firms to expand its sales and marketing activities. Existing investors, Menlo Ventures, Rho Ventures, Star Ventures and Four Rivers Group participated in the round, which was led by QuestMark Partners.

The company said the financing round brings its total funding to $97 million since it launched in 2005.

"The video conferencing market will undergo exponential growth in the next five years and new market leaders will emerge," said Tim Krongard, Partner at QuestMark Partners. Krongard will be joining Vidyo's Board of Directors.

Vidyo is challenging telepresence market leaders Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Polycom (Nasdaq:PLCM) with its less expensive video conferencing solution that doesn't require dedicated bandwidth to function.

Last month, it scored a major win with the Ontario Telemedicine Network in Canada, a feather in the cap of the New Jersey-based firm.

For more:
- see this release

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