The VOIP Count
As in, "the next VOIP powerhouse ready to unseat the telcos," not, "the next money-losing company with a ski slope of a stock chart." (See Vonage Gets a Haircut.) Digium gets those calls because it's the "benevolent owner," as its executives say, of Asterisk, the open-source PBX/telephony platform. (See Open Source Eyes Telecom.) Asterisk can be the cheap foundation for any number of businesses -- like a VOIP service.
Digium won't say what the white-board number is up to, but it's big. And its growth rate has slowed down a lot.
SunRocket's collapse probably scared off some wannabes, but Digium CEO Danny Windham thinks the chilling effect comes mostly from Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ). (See Vonage Ordered to Pay $58M to Verizon, Appeals Court Lifts Vonage Injunction, and Court Asks VG, VZ to Mend Fences.)
Nice bubble while it lasted.
— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading
To clarify: It's not Digium that was in a bubble, it's all those get-rich-quick VOIP providers.
Digium, from what I can tell, is doing just great, and Asterisk's success is not a function of the number of VOIP wannabes. They've got better (and more successful) fields to plow.
But -- starting your own Vonage to unseat the telcos? That battle's done.