IBM and VoIP

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IBM and VoIP

I recently blogged this: Tom Keating VoIP and Gadget Blog: VoIP, Where are you IBM?

Well, skibare shared a news release with me that indeed points to IBM at least "using" VoIP. When IBM will start offering a VoIP product or service still remains to be seen.

Check out the news release. I bolded the important part:

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Shares of Ptek Holdings Inc.
(PTEK) plunged Wednesday
after the company said one of its largest customers, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), has found a new provider for certain teleconferencing services.

The announcement came almost a month after the company warned investors that IBM was looking at alternatives to Ptek's services.

In a press release Tuesday, the company said IBM told it that IBM plans to use a new provider for "reservation-less"
conferencing.

"Reservation-less" conferencing is an automated service which doesn't require use of an operator and which gives companies a dedicated dial-in number and passcode that they can use at any time.

The service is part of Ptek's premier conferencing business which accounted for about 45% of Ptek's $112 million in revenue in the second-quarter.

Ptek said it expects IBM to switch service providers "sometime in 2005."
The company said it expects to continue providing services through the rest of this year and into 2005, but expects the level of those services to decline.

A spokesman for Ptek wasn't available to comment further, but in regulatory filings Ptek has said IBM accounts for a "significant"
amount of revenue.

In 2003, IBM represented about 11% of consolidated revenue from continuing operations, and 27% of the premiere conferencing segments revenue.

In its quarterly report, filed in August, Ptek warned investors that "IBM is actively exploring the use of new technologies, such as voice-over-IP (VOIP), to help lower its costs of conferencing."

Ptek's shares fell 27% to $7.96 on Aug. 10, the day after that quarterly report was filed, but recovered slightly from that point, closing at $8.89 a to help lower its costs of conferencing."

Ptek's shares fell 27% to $7.96 on Aug. 10, the day after that quarterly report was filed, but recovered slightly from that point, closing at $8.89 a share on Tuesday.



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