Avaya and Polycom are expanding their relationship to include the development and marketing of new voice and video unified communications solutions. The integrated offerings will be based on Avaya's Aura UC platform and Polycom's Open Collaboration Network strategy. The Avaya-Polycom partnership is the latest move in a quickly changing UC landscape as vendors attempt to take on major players like Cisco Systems.
- Avaya and Polycom are expanding their partnership to include integrated video, voice and collaborations offerings, the latest move in a quickly evolving unified communications market. The two companies March 9 announced plans to jointly develop and market a host of new, tightly integrated UC sol...

Cisco Systems is integrating its TelePresence video collaboration technology and its unified communications products to create a health care platform designed to improve patient care in virtual physician visits. The platform, which will launch later in March, will allow more collaboration between doctors and patients, Cisco says.
- Cisco Systems is bringing together its TelePresence video collaboration technology and unified communications products to create a platform to enable better patient care in virtual settings. Cisco announced its HealthPresence platform March 1 at the HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management S...

Building on the Starent ST40, Cisco introduces the ASR 5000, a platform dedicated to the mobile network to create an end-to-end IP next-generation network.
- Cisco's $2.9 billion acquisition of Starent began to pay off Feb. 9, as the company announced it has expanded its ASR Series platforms with the introduction of the Cisco ASR 5000, the rebranded Starent ST40. Cisco has built upon the mobile data platform to create an end-to-end IP NGN (Internet P...

Enterprises looking to drive down costs and improve communications increasingly are turning to video conferencing, according to a survey done for Global IP Solutions. The survey echoes what other studies are finding, and supports the strategies of such vendors as Cisco, Polycom, Juniper, Tandberg and Radvision.
- Businesspeople are increasingly using video to collaborate with colleagues, partners and customers, according to a survey released Feb. 3. In a survey of 1,200 senior business professionals conducted by Research Now for IP communications company Global IP Solutions, the majority said they have u...

Pepsico taps Cisco and BT for a telepresence initiative that will roll out in the companys major offices worldwide. The project will use Ciscos TelePresence technology and BTs services. The move illustrates the growing enterprise demand for telepresence technologies, and the need for interoperability between vendor systems. Cisco and Polycom differ on the ways to establish interoperability standards.
- A decision by Pepsico to deploy Cisco Systems TelePresence solution illustrates the growing demand for the technology, which can help enterprises improve collaboration and reduce expenses. The giant food company announced Feb. 2 that it will use Ciscos solution and services from BT to improve co...

Cisco Systems is releasing a protocol designed to improve interoperability with telepresence systems from other vendors. In addition, Cisco is rolling out applications to expand its TelePresence technology beyond the virtual meeting room and is offering new endpoints that are more energy-efficient and easier to install. The announcements come as VOIP and video conferencing rivals such as Polycom are looking for ways to keep pace with Cisco.
- Cisco Systems is aiming to expand the reach of telepresence capabilities, releasing an interoperability protocol and pushing its own TelePresence product beyond virtual meeting rooms. The networking giant on Jan. 26 also unveiled two new TelePresence endpoints that are designed for easier instal...

Cisco Systems is looking to bring its telepresence capabilities into the home, a strategy Cisco officials will talk about at the Consumer Electronics Show. The move will bring Cisco into competition with Skype, which already offers such capabilities, and Polycom, which is partnering with IBM on a consumer video communications prototype that will be shown at CES.
- Cisco Systems is continuing its push into the home, with a video communications strategy using a consumer high-definition television and a broadband connection. Cisco officials are talking about their plans at the Consumer Electronics Show, which runs Jan. 7 to 10 in Las Vegas. In conjunction w...

Jajah, a small Silicon Valley VOIP company, is being bought by Telefonica Europe for $207 million in an all-cash deal. Jajah's technology is designed to enable consumers and businesses to communicate over the Internet on any device and from any network. The company's voice-over-IP platform has made inroads into social networks, such as Twitter.
- After more than a week of speculation about its future including reports of interest from Cisco Systems and Microsoft VOIP vendor Jajah is being bought by Telefonica Europe. Telefonica, known better by the name O2, announced Dec. 23 that it is buying the smaller Silicon Valley company for $207 m...

The rapidly changing unified communications market, which is seeing consolidations and partnerships among established players like Cisco, BT and Polycom, is also now getting new entrants like Logitech and Adtran. Both are looking to get traction in the UC space through the SMB sector.
- Adtrans entrance into the unified communications space adds another player to a rapidly changing market. In the past few months, the UC field has seen consolidations, partnerships and new entrants as vendors look to position themselves in a space that is expected to grow rapidly over the next fe...

BT and Cisco are partnering to create a cloud-based, hosted unified communications platform designed to make it more cost-effective for businesses to embrace UC technologies, which bring together voice, mobile and data services. The services will be offered through BT, while Cisco Services will build the underlying infrastructure and help sell the services.
- Cisco Systems and British Telecom are creating a cloud-based service to offer businesses hosted unified communications services. The goal of the partnership, announced Dec. 9, is to enable cash-strapped companies in a difficult economy a way to take advantage of the benefits of UC without having ...

So Cisco got its acquisition of videoconferencing leader Tandberg done--by a whisker. In fact, it didn't quite convince 90% of Tandberg shareholders to vote for the deal, which was the goal. But it got close enough, evidently. Here's the release from Cisco:

SAN JOSE, Calif., NEW YORK, and OSLO, Norway, December 3, 2009 – In the voluntary public cash offer to acquire all outstanding shares in TANDBERG, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) announces that following the expiration of the offer period at 5:30 pm CET on December 3, 2009, Cisco controls approximately 89 percent of the outstanding shares in TANDBERG (OSLO: TAA.OL).

The received acceptances represent a lower acceptance ratio than the 90 percent condition to the offer set out in Section 1.7 in the offer document dated October 7, 2009. However, Cisco has decided to waive this 90 percent condition.

There may be adjustments to the preliminary result due to possible corrections and changes following registration with the Verdipapirsentralen (VPS). The final result will be published as soon as it is available.

Cisco intends to complete the voluntary public cash offer subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the remaining conditions to the offer as set forth in the offer document, Section 1.7, as soon as possible. Assuming completion of the offer, Cisco will in relation to the remaining shares in TANDBERG proceed as required under chapter 6 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

So Cisco got its acquisition of videoconferencing leader Tandberg done--by a whisker. In fact, it didn't quite convince 90% of Tandberg shareholders to vote for the deal, which was the goal. But it got close enough, evidently. Here's the release from Cisco:

SAN JOSE, Calif., NEW YORK, and OSLO, Norway, December 3, 2009 – In the voluntary public cash offer to acquire all outstanding shares in TANDBERG, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) announces that following the expiration of the offer period at 5:30 pm CET on December 3, 2009, Cisco controls approximately 89 percent of the outstanding shares in TANDBERG (OSLO: TAA.OL).

The received acceptances represent a lower acceptance ratio than the 90 percent condition to the offer set out in Section 1.7 in the offer document dated October 7, 2009. However, Cisco has decided to waive this 90 percent condition.

There may be adjustments to the preliminary result due to possible corrections and changes following registration with the Verdipapirsentralen (VPS). The final result will be published as soon as it is available.

Cisco intends to complete the voluntary public cash offer subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the remaining conditions to the offer as set forth in the offer document, Section 1.7, as soon as possible. Assuming completion of the offer, Cisco will in relation to the remaining shares in TANDBERG proceed as required under chapter 6 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

So Cisco got its acquisition of videoconferencing leader Tandberg done--by a whisker. In fact, it didn't quite convince 90% of Tandberg shareholders to vote for the deal, which was the goal. But it got close enough, evidently. Here's the release from Cisco:

SAN JOSE, Calif., NEW YORK, and OSLO, Norway, December 3, 2009 – In the voluntary public cash offer to acquire all outstanding shares in TANDBERG, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) announces that following the expiration of the offer period at 5:30 pm CET on December 3, 2009, Cisco controls approximately 89 percent of the outstanding shares in TANDBERG (OSLO: TAA.OL).

The received acceptances represent a lower acceptance ratio than the 90 percent condition to the offer set out in Section 1.7 in the offer document dated October 7, 2009. However, Cisco has decided to waive this 90 percent condition.

There may be adjustments to the preliminary result due to possible corrections and changes following registration with the Verdipapirsentralen (VPS). The final result will be published as soon as it is available.

Cisco intends to complete the voluntary public cash offer subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the remaining conditions to the offer as set forth in the offer document, Section 1.7, as soon as possible. Assuming completion of the offer, Cisco will in relation to the remaining shares in TANDBERG proceed as required under chapter 6 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

Avaya and Cisco Systems were the top vendors in a unified communications market that saw strong growth in the third quarter, according to Dell'Oro Group. However, while the UC space is doing well in the second half of 2009 and is expected to continue growing in 2010, it will be a while before it reaches the pre-recession numbers of 2008.
- Avaya and Cisco Systems were the top vendors in a growing unified communications space in the third quarter, according to research company Dell'Oro Group. In a statement released Dec. 3, Dell'Oro analysts said more than 70 percent of the vendors in the space contributed to the market's growth in...