Four stars is a big deal. Let’s consider the different circumstances that can receive such an honor, like hotels and restaurants. A four-star hotel is one that far surpasses the basic or general amenities to offer a prestigious and evolved overall experience. For example, while a standard hotel offers parking and daily cleaning service, a four-star hotel will offer valet parking, personal dry cleaning and a concierge. Similarly, a four-star restaurant is touted as the cream of the crop. Notable Chicago Tribune restaurant critic Phil Vettel says, “When I slap the four-star sticker on a restaurant, I’m declaring to be one of the very best restaurants of its kind, a place that’s maintaining a standard to which every restaurant should aspire.”
When you translate “restaurant” in this sentence to “business,” you get 8x8 (News - Alert).
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The Motley Fool’s Brian D. Pacampara last week wrote, as republished by Daily Finance, “Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, VoIP business phone service specialist 8x8 has earned a respected four-star ranking.”
This quickly rising player is being touted by some as one that will one day overthrow the reigning champs in its respected market, such as Vonage and Verizon (News - Alert). Apparently, as sourced by S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS, 96 percent of the 339 members who have rated 8x8 believe that the stock will outperform the S&P 500 moving forward. The S&P 500, or the Standard & Poor’s 500, is a stock market index based on the market capitalizations of 500 leading companies publicly traded in the U.S. Many consider it the best representation of the market as well as influencer of the U.S. economy.
The article also quotes DrGoldin as recently predicting that “8x8 [will] see a double-digit growth every year until one day it’s finally taken over by some Goliath.”
8x8, however, prides itself in being a customer-focused, independent company. Last year after the company revealed its impressive Q1 2013 fiscal results – to $25.3 million, or a 36-percent increase from that time last year – CMO Debbie Jo Severin (News - Alert) told TMC the company “has always stood tall around the fact that we own and operate our own technology. It’s home-grown and it’s ours, and therefore we can develop services that are specifically designed for our customer and our target market.”
Fast forward to the present and the company is still going extremely strong, having just last week revealed yet another record breaking quarter. For its Q3 2013 results ending December 31, 2012, the company reached all-time record revenue of $27.3 million – a 17-percent year-over-year rise in total revenue.
“The significant jump in the number of services subscribed to by our new customers this quarter clearly shows the success 8x8 is having in penetrating the upper end of the small and medium business segment,” 8x8 Chairman and CEO, Bryan Martin (News - Alert), said.
Bottom line: It seems safe to say that the question is not if 8x8 will rise above the rest, but when and more importantly how it will do so. This will undoubtedly prove interesting as it unfolds.
To learn more about all of 8x8’s offerings, visit
www.8x8.com.
Edited by Rachel Ramsey