• IPtimize buys AFS’ broadband access, VoIP biz
By Traci Patterson
IPtimize has acquired American Fiber Systems’ (AFS) broadband access and hosted VoIP telephone services business. Based in Boise, Idaho, the commercial VoIP business assets acquired by IPtimize serve small-business and enterprise customers in four metropolitan areas: Boise and its surrounding areas; Reno and Las Vegas, Nev.; and Salt Lake City.
The acquisition more than doubles the number of IP endpoints served by IPtimize, the company said, and it adds both expanded geographic reach and an established commercial customer base to the company’s growing VoIP business.
IPtimize will be offering a complete suite of advanced commercial voice services to the acquired AFS customers, and the company will continue to work with AFS to provide commercial VoIP and data management services to AFS customers in other markets, as well. The transaction is a debt-free cash transaction which closed last week.
• Covergence hires Kaufman as VP of engineering
By Mike Robuck
Covergence, which develops session border control (SBC) and session management products, announced that Gil Kaufman was hired as the company’s vice president of engineering.
In his new role, Kaufman will be responsible for overseeing the engineering organization and development process, while CTO and cofounder Ken Kuenzel will continue to drive the company’s overall technical direction and product architecture.
Most recently, Kaufman was the executive vice president of research and development at BigBand Networks. While there, he successfully built, managed and integrated a strong distributed engineering environment across multiple projects and product lines and guided the company through its successful initial public offering in 2007. Kaufman has previously worked for Cisco Systems, Xyplex and Motorola.
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• Migration to IPv6 moving slowly
• Qwest reaches tentative agreements with 2 unions
• 2008 Cable Hall of Fame Honorary Committee members announced
• Widevine’s DRM solution selected by CinemaNow
• Pew: TV news audience stable, online news audience increasing
