Telephony giant and cloud communications solutions provider 8x8 (News - Alert), Inc. has sold its dedicated server hosting business in a $3 million deal. The acquisition was made by The IRC Company, Inc., which is doing business as Black Lotus Communications.
8x8 had acquired the business in 2010 and used it to offer managed hosting services on dedicated servers to 288 customers. The business was worth approximately $3.8 million as of the fiscal year ending this past March.
The infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) cloud hosting businesses of 8x8 were not included in the sale, and in fact 8x8 will now focus on its cloud-based business service offerings. These include unified communications as a service (UCaaS) along with its call center, video conferencing and business telephony offerings.
The company recently announced a new version of its Virtual Office mobile PBX (News - Alert) phone solution for Android smartphones and tablets. The offering features unified communications capabilities that include video calling over 4G and Wi-Fi.
Synergy (News - Alert) Research Group has found that annual service provider revenues from cloud UC services are already more than $2 billion. And the UCaaS business suite segment is growing more than twice as fast as the larger market and will soon overtake it – which bodes well for 8x8’s business strategy. Synergy cited 8x8 as an up and coming operator in the space, competing directly with companies like RingCentral, ShoreTel (News - Alert)/M5 and West IP Communications.
Black Lotus is primarily focused on security and offers DDoS mitigation solutions. The company has been working to expand and recently received its first round of financing.
"Black Lotus is looking forward to working with our new clients in supporting their needs," said Shawn Marck, chief technology officer of Black Lotus. "Our culture is driven by exceeding expectations and delivering business solutions through technology. We now have three data centers in the United States; Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and Northern Virginia."
Edited by Alisen Downey