8×8 has a birthday. They're now 25 years old. The company has had a lot of transitions, but the core to their business is a patent portfolio that puts things inside real time communications hardware and software.
Here's a list of their milestones:
8×8 Highlights and Milestones:
1987 – 8×8 founded under the name Integrated Information Technology
1990 – Company establishes itself as a leading manufacturer of semiconductors used in embedded videoconferencing and videophone products
1990 – Bryan Martin hired as “Member of Technical Staff” and ultimately becomes CEO in 2002
1992 – Patented Vision Processor Chip chosen by AT&T for use in next generation Picturephone videophone
1994 – Developed the Video Compression Processor (VCP) chip which obtained 90% share of the videoconferencing market
1996 – Developed and marketed its first consumer videophone for regular phone lines under the ViaTV brand name
1997 – 8×8 goes public and shortly after develops a family of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) chips and software
2002 – 8×8 begins offering VoIP service direct to consumers under the Packet 8 Brand name, and quickly grows to become the second largest standalone VoIP services provider in the industry
2004 – 8×8 launches the first VoIP E-911 service; introduces DV326 Desktop Consumer VideoPhone and 8×8 Virtual Office hosted PBX phone system
2007 – 8×8 Virtual Office ranked #1 hosted VoIP phone system choice by U.S. based small and medium sized businesses by telecom research firm AMI Partners
2009 – 8×8 expands business telephony offerings into unified communications and introduces 8×8 Virtual Meeting web conferencing service
2010 – 8×8 launches Virtual Office Mobile iPhone app and Virtual Office Pro unified communications solution for businesses; acquires managed hosting service provider Central Host
2011 – Reaches milestone of over 25,000 business subscribers; acquires cloud hosting service provider Zerigo and cloud contact center provider Contactual; introduces flat-rate Virtual Room cloud videoconferencing solution with Polycom
2012 – Announces record quarterly revenue of $23.3 million (31% year over year increase) and net income of $2.6 million (73% year over year increase)