Breaking news from ITEXPO West 2011 in Austin, Texas.

Hosted communications, video and VoIP pioneer 8x8 has just purchased Contactual, formerly known as White Pajama. I have been visiting 8x8 for about 15 years and when you enter their HQ the first thing you notice is the patents hanging everywhere. They now have about 75 of them. After the tech bubble crash the company turned their leading-edge technology into a customer focused business which you could call a business Vonage. This company was way ahead when it came to the ASP/hosted/on-demand/cloud communications space.

White Pajama on the other hand was founded during the dotcom bubble times and the founder was wearing white PJs when he decided to form the company. It was later bought back from the investors by the founder who turned the company into a a success. Again, another pioneer in the cloud-based call center space. Oh yeah, and they changed the name to get taken more seriously in a post-dotcom bubble crash market.

The two companies fit together very nicely - there is synergy and a parallel line of thinking these entrepreneurial companies share. And they are geographically close as well - both in the Silicon Valley area. TMC's Erik Linask has more.