RADVISION acquired substantially all of the assets of First Virtual Communications, Inc. (FVC™), primarily its Click to Meet solution and its significant customer base.
The acquisition provides RADVISION with a powerful software-based real-time voice, video, and Web collaboration/communication solution for the desktop ideal for enterprises, service providers, and portals.
This excellent desktop-user oriented communication solution strongly compliments RADVISION’s existing infrastructure architecture for real-time voice, video, and data communications over any network, to any device, using any protocol.
RADVISION refers to this transaction as an asset acquisition because RADVISION did not buy the liabilities or shares of the company, but instead bought substantially all of FVC’s assets – most importantly the complete rights to all FVC technology.
RADVISION has hired a significant number of key FVC employees in every area of the company’s operations..
The key is functionality and user experience ideally suited for desktop multimedia communications.
FVC developed a robust portfolio of solutions for desktop conferencing. It merges voice and high end video with Web collaboration and IM chats. We believe the features and functionality of its software client, which is web based and downloadable as needed, is exactly what the market is looking for in desktop communications. The FVC Click to Meet™ and Conference Server provide for high end desktop video and though it patent-pending Intelligent Linking allows for a highly distributed communication architecture optimizing the overall network load.
FVC also brings a closer partnership with and integrated into other vendors’ applications, directories, and tools. This includes Microsoft Outlook , Microsoft Active Directory*, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005*, IBM Lotus Instant Messaging , and IBM Domino directory .
And, on the infrastructure side, they have an elegant software-based MCU that can be deployed onto servers throughout an organization – leading to a distributed desktop-oriented architecture that supports hundreds or thousands of desktop users.
RADVISION has long believed that the visual communications market is poised for significant growth as it expands out of the meeting room and onto the employee desktop and into the home.
Fundamentally, RADVISION sees two significant themes in enterprise communications.
- Connectivity – where any service can be delivered to any device over any protocol or network (meeting room, desktop, wireless, or even broadband mobile)
- Convergence – tightly integrated communications where IM, voice, video, data collaboration are all integrated into a single seamless user experience.
RADVISION’s products are powerful network solutions that fully support most meeting room and desktop video end points and protocols, integrate into existing management and scheduling tools such as MSFT Outlook, and deliver advanced media processing such as H.263 to H.264 transcoding. In a word – connectivity.
FVC has been a pioneer in the software desktop space with an award-winning software-based solution with specific features for the desktop user. It has also been in this market for over seven years and has a huge market share and installed base both in the federal and enterprise markets. And FVC – with its powerful desktop software applications - delivers unsurpassed convergence.
The combination of these two technologies and the two companies’ customer bases (meeting room and desktop) brings significant added value to IT managers who are looking to deploy an integrated multimedia communication architecture.
In summary, a combination of the two companies’ technologies yields a powerful desktop oriented solution that bridges the meeting room, broadband mobile, and desktop into a seamless multimedia communications architecture for universal communication.
Yes
This acquisition now enables RADVISION to offer its existing enterprise video customers a powerful software-oriented architecture and solution extending and integrating with the RADVISION infrastructure. This is both a software client for desktop applications and a software-based conferencing architecture that can be hosted on servers throughout an enterprise. This enables the user to deploy a distributed network that maintains network quality and makes it ideal for a desktop architecture scaling to hundreds or thousands of active and mobile users with excellent extranet communication capabilities.
FVC has a powerful software-based network infrastructure ideally suited for desktop conferencing/communications accommodating for user mobility and distributed organizations.
On the end point side, RADVISION has a long history of supporting any end point, any protocol, and network. RADVISION is committed to that vision. FVC’s end point is just another client it will support – but one that is, in our opinion, the most advanced, integrated multimedia communications client in the market today. True convergence at the desktop.
On the infrastructure side, the FVC MCU being software-based is ideal for distributed networks supporting hundreds or thousands of users. In this architecture the FVC MCU will sit on servers throughout the network, supporting local calls and mixing them with other callers, or other MCUs. These server-based MCUs will tightly integrate with software and/or hardware processing units from RADVISION (MCUs, gateways, etc.) which will provide the advanced processing and transcoding needed for more processing-intensive voice and video applications required for room-based video conferencing (e.g. H.263 to H.264, H.239 dual video, etc.)
We are committed to our partnership with Microsoft. Our focus is on delivering state-of-the-art voice and video collaboration solutions and to seamlessly integrate voice and video as part of a rich media web collaboration solution. While we provide some level of data collaboration solutions to complement existing Microsoft offerings, our long term strategy is to support and integrate bets-of-breed web conferencing solutions such as Microsoft Office Live Meeting.
We have already put an integration team in place that is working hard to leverage the technologies of the two companies. Some RADVISION products such as our gateways are already fully supported by Click to Meet and our intention is to extend that integration further.
Some FVC resellers are also RADVISION resellers, so they will experience relatively little changes in their relationship. RADVISION will work with the remaining resellers to determine the most appropriate roles for them, but all such resellers desiring to work with RADVISION will be required to sign on as RADVISION resellers. We encourage each such reseller to contact RADVISION directly to explore this further.
The Click to Meet brand will be kept and combined with the RADVISION naming conventions. Click to Meet not only has strong market share but also very strong mind share. We intend to leverage that brand recognition as RADVISION continues to addressing the desktop market.
For customers that have already purchased support and maintenance contracts from FVC, RADVISION will provide those customers with a program to migrate to the RADVISION OnGuard programs.
For FVC customers without an existing support contract who wish to join this support and maintenance program, they can contact RADVISION to establish a new maintenance contract.
For further details FVC customers should contact fvc-inquiries@radvision.com.
If you are unsure if you purchased support and maintenance when you purchased FVC Click to Meet, please send an email to fvc-inquiries@radvision.com with your name, company name, contact number and someone will contact you to let you know.
RADVISION will start contacting FVC customers via email and telephone. Support and Maintenance enrollment program will be proposed to FVC customers that have purchased support and maintenance contracts within the last year.
Yes. The Click to Meet products will continue to be developed with enhancements being added regularly.
All inquiries, orders, payment, and return questions should be directed to RADVISION,
RADVISION can be reached by the following methods:
Tel: +1 (201) 689 6319
e-Mail: fvc-inquiries@radvision.com
Qualified resellers can sell all of RADVISION products, including Click to Meet.
For inquiries on reseller qualification; please contact:
America: Mike Trego at mtrego@radvision.com
Europe Middle East Africa: Bob Rickwood at bob@radvision.com
Asia Pacific: Eitan Livne at eitanl@radvision.com
For the time being all numbers will stay the same. However, once this acquisition is finalized contact information will change as the integration of operations progress. We will inform customers and partners when this occurs. Readers can also regularly check the RADVISION web site for updated contact information.
Yes.
The division will be managed by Killko Caballero; focusing on satisfying existing and upcoming customers and on further developing Click to Meet.
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