In my Bloglines reader I came across what looked like a news scoop that Rich Tehrani had. It was the post about Pingtel being bought by BlueSocket so I clicked through. Then I looked and looked on Rich Tehrani’s site and nothing. Zippo. But Google’s BlogSearch also shows it was there. I have emailed pal Rich to find out if it is real and what the story is as no one else has it.
Here’s the text from Bloglines:
Bluesocket buys Pingtel
In Wireless
One of the fastest growing spaces in communications is the wireless market and it is essential all communications equipment providers address this area. To that end, Bluesocket, a company known in the WLAN and security space has just picked up Pingtel the company behind one of the first open-source PBX projects.
Pingtel started life designing and selling state of the art IP phones. The company won a number of awards for their nice designs but they were way ahead of their time. No one anticipated the IP PBX space having such a market slowdown from 2001-2003.
As the IP phone market did lose traction, Pingtel changed gears and launched an IP PBX and soon thereafter decided to make it an open-source project. The company has sound technology but just never gained the traction or mindshare in the market of Asterisk.
Still, the company has a loyal following.
The combination of a PBX and WiFi company makes a great deal of sense. This can be a very good solution for companies looking to a single vendor for true mobility and communications product depth.
It would be a tremendous loss IMHO if the Pingtel brand is not kept alive. There is still great potential in the SMB communications space and with a larger focus on branding, Pingtel could gain share of market. The best way to proceed is with a strong PBX and WLAN brand. These two product lines could and should cross-promote and sell one another.
Update-I have checked my email and do not have a release on this. I have also called the VC’s for Pingtel, Vesbridge to get comment on the possible sale to BlueSocket. If Rich broke the story, bully for him. He’s a member of the press. He wrote the story and now its gone. It’s either real or its not. Only Rich can say why and what its all about. That’s not my role in life, but I stand behind him writing the story if he had a news tip and I am encouraging him to repost the story, as his first job is as a journalist.
Update-Kudo’s to Rich for breaking the story. Here’s the release today, five days later.