Potential VoIP Investments: Part IV

This is a continuation of our look at potential companies for a VoIP shortlist. See the initial page here.

Excel Switching

Excel Switching is a privately owned company. In mid 1999, at the height of the dotcom boom, Lucent bought Excel for about $1.7 billion in stock. Four years later, in 2003, they spun it out again as a private and independent company. Excel Switching develops signalling gateways and media servers for TDM and VoIP networks. In late August they announced their takeover of Brooktrout Inc or $173 million. Brooktrout was a NASDAQ listed company employing 290 people. Before this, Excel had about 175 employees.


Grandstream

Grandstream Networks is a private company founded in 2002. They are a designer and manufacturer of VoIP telephone terminal products and based out of Massachusetts.

InGate

Ingate is a private company founded in 2001 and based out of Stockholm in Sweden. They develop SIP-capable enterprise firewalls.

LignUp

LignUp is a private company founded in 2004 and based in Silicon Valley, California. They've developed a web services-based VoIP communications platform. They received six million dollars in venture capital financing in April 2005.

Linksys

Linksys is a division of Cisco and thus not of interest for this shortlist other than the fact that they may be acquiring some of the companies on this list soon.