BroadSoft, of Gaithersburg, Md., has finally said what has been rumored for so long: It has acquired Sylantro Systems Corp., a VoIP applications developer based in Campbell, Calif., for an undisclosed amount of money. From what I’ve heard, no cash changed hands, though BroadSoft might have assumed Sylantro’s debt. The real reason for this deal might be AT&T (s T): Sylantro is the voice platform being used by AT&T for its U-verse offerings.
BroadSoft is consolidating the market and is becoming a dominant player. It recently acquired the M6 application server business from GENBAND, expressing high hopes for the future. This leaves the company with two competitors: Sonus (s SONS) and MetaSwitch.
News of the deal has been doing the rounds in the VoIP circles for a while now. The 10-year-old, privately held BroadSoft, which recently slashed jobs and raised some fresh capital, sells to some of the largest telecom operators. It’s estimated to have logged around $60 million in revenues in 2007 and was said to have broken even.
Hey Om – don’t forget Comverse (NetCentrex) in your list of competitors…
Both these companies deserve each other. ZERO outside the box thinking with over $200M in venture money dumped into both these companies. Simply a joke!!!! The best company in the space was NetCentrex as pointed out by Ronald above. NetCentrex sold out for $160M with $50M in revenues and had ONLY raised $34M in venture money. Now, that is creating shareholder value.
Let’s hope that their is more value than just having AT&T as a customer. AT&T is slashing CapEx BIG TIME in all but one business line which of course neither of these companies has any products for. I”m just afraid that with the CapEx slashes taking affect across the spectrum this new company may disappear within 18 months unless they can put some lip stick on it and take it public on the Paskistan Stock Exchange:)
Alex! You are an idiot; you know nothing and it shows- go back to whatever nay sayer hole you slinked from, you idiot.
@Ronald,
Hey good to see you buddy. Also, didn’t know Comverse was still doing this stuff. Thanks for the reminder. Appreciate it.
@John Roe
I can assure you I know much more about the space than you. As a matter of fact I started and built a company in the telecom services space that today is generating 7 figures monthly with 70% margins. I was not an idiot to build centrex type services and try to build a business out of of a commoditized service offering 10% margins. You are in denial go seek help. Look no further than why Ribbitt kicked your ASS. Who’s the idiot now.
p.s. Happy New Year!
Alex you amaze me, your ego is a big as your mouth. I’ve been in telco for over 30 years and sold 2 companies during the boom, so I am sure I could probably buy and sell you and your geek ass all day long, dip stick. Get a life jerk wad. Your the idiot in denial.
PS: Happy New Year to you loser!
full story
http://telephonyonline.com/software/news/broadsoft-aquires-sylantro-1229/
.Broadsoft gobbles up Sylantro CUSTOMER BASE
This was just waiting to happen. When you mix greed corruption politics with VOIP you end up with Sylantro IDC at Bangalore. The organisation was too small to cope with corruption. Quality deteriorated with every release, from 4.1.1 to 4.2 to 4.3. Disgruntled senior developers left abruptly during BT specific release 4.3. BT dumped, sylantro slumped.
What should have been a day to plan IPO, endedup as a funeral ceremony. Classic example for future startups to learn the significance of quality in this domain.
RIP Sylantro.
@john roe
Funny guy. You sound like a VC who just sent the memo to his LP’s telling them he made a mistake. Don’t hate the playa hate the game.
The fact that you were in the Telco business for 30 years says it all. Your a fossil legacy butt, who can’t let go of the the TDM days. Look when you were Lead QA for the rotary phone I was thinking of how to put you into retirement. Seems as though you’re still struggling to figure out H.323 when everyone else has moved to SIP.
AND selling your assets not once, but twice out of Chapter 11 doesn’t count as exits unless your were the bankruptcy attorney.
The irony is that you and I both probably know each other. Let’s get a beer. Of course you buy:)
This is a space that has turned out to have little room for multiple players. Despite the VoIP hype of past years, the classical VoIP telephony application space never came to live to its hype. The total market revenue for this segment is still under $200M! World has moved on to more exciting and revenue-generating products, while the telcos are still stuck in figuring out their NGN and IMS deployment strategies. I will not be surprised if in a year or two Broadsoft will have its own fire sale for the benefit of Ericsson, AlcaLu, or another Big Iron player…..Mark my word! 🙂
Hey Om, did you mean to link to your own story in “doing the rounds”?
Or did you mean to link to http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/rumor-mill-broadsoft-buys-sylantro/2008-12-18
(Yes, I feel shameless this week…)
Alex- you poor dumb bastard. You just do not get “it” and never will.
Yes, I was around in “the beginning” building companies while you were wiping your tiny pecker on your PC screen and playing video games.
I doubt we “know” each other. You are just another wee lad trying to make it in a big boy’s world- probably writing code for 12 bucks an hour and wishing you could find your ass with a search warrant. Dip stick; its not as if anyone is paying the slightest attention to your nay-nay posts- or did you really think your comments had some merit?- NOT. What a maroooooon.
Hi Om,
You mentioned that this acquisition leaves Broadsoft with two competitors: Metaswitch and Sonus. But don’t also forget, Nortel is in this space as well. According to Dell’Oro Nortel is the worldwide leader in carrier VoIP and has maintained that position every year for six years since 2002 and YTD through 2008. Nortel has innovative SIP application servers like the Adaptive Application Engine which delivers SIP applications like VoIP, video telephony, Federated IM, Mobile Extension FMC, and SOA/Web Services. Nortel has a portfolio of more than 40 carrier applications, we have shipped more than 8M SIP lines, and we have also shipped more than 100 M VoIP ports to over 320 carriers. We are definitely a major competitor with the vendors you mentioned.
This was truly an interesting read. With improper management, and money sucking managers with improper work ethics and many disgruntled employees and former employees….Sylantro Systems was an accident waiting to happen…I’m surprised they were able to suck out this much VC money and hang in so long until the final buyout to rescue their sorry and greedy asses. Yeah, I knew the stock at Sylantro would be WORTHLESS. R.I.P Sylantro….I thought this dog had been laid to rest long ago!