Just came across a great article in The Huntsville Times titled "Twin visions for telecom Digium, ADTRAN follow opposite tracks", which discusses and compares ADTRAN and Digium. Both companies are based in Huntsville, Alabama, a best-kept-secret when it comes to technical talent and often referred to as "the "Silicon Valley of the South". In the article, Digium CEO Danny Windham calls the Huntsville/Madison County area "a hidden secret." Traditionally rooted in the defense and government work, Huntsville, Alabama has moved into technical commercial businesses due to its strong intellectual capital.
ADTRAN's Gorgeous Campus & Buildings
The article explains the connections between Digium and ADTRAN beyond geography when it tells how Danny Windham left ADTRAN to become Digium's CEO. It also explains how Mark Spencer, the founder of Asterisk & Digium formerly worked for ADTRAN. However, the article neglected to mention ADTRAN's strong support in developing Asterisk during its early years and that ADTRAN still has an equity interest in Digium. In fact, I recall in my 2005 Adtran meeting down in Huntville, Adtran mentioned they knew Mark Spencer and that Mark did an internship with Adran. Adtran spoke very highly of Mark and they are highly supportive of Digium. I think that would have solidified the comparison between the two companies even better. Still, a great article worth a read.
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One of the early Digium / ex-Linux Support Services employees told me a long time ago that Adtran invested just enough money to keep it off of their SEC public filing records - however much that is...
I guess it was enough