Voice startup rollup continues: SabSe buys Jaxtr

June 8, 2009 | Eric Eldon | Comments | |

Another internet voice startup has ceased independent existence: Telecommunication services company SabSe has bought Jaxtr for an undisclosed amount.

Jaxtr, as we’ve covered over the last few years, has gained more than 10 million total users through a widget and other tools for making cheap or free calls between your computer and the world.

But the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company is the latest in a line of Silicon Valley voice startups to get purchased before they could prove themselves to be big businesses. Two other consumer-facing VoIP startups, Jajah and Jangl, merged last year [clarification: Jajah and Jangl first formed a strategic partnership in 2007; in early 2008, Jajah absorbed some of Jangl's assets and employees]. And voice-web platform company Ribbit sold for a cool $105 million to telecommunications giant BT last summer.

The concept of using a computer to bypass cell phones and landlines seemed like a huge idea earlier this decade. Many voice startups raised tens of millions of dollars in venture money; Jaxtr, for example, raised a total of $21.5 million. But aside from Skype’s misguided sale to eBay, most so-called voice over internet protocol (VoIP) startups haven’t made a lot of money, at least that we’ve heard of. Jaxtr has introduced a variety of for-fee services, including discount international calling plans.

The company’s brand will stay separate from Mountain View, Calif.-based SabSe, although other parts of its technology will be integrated, according to the press release. SabSe offers a “Telephony Applications as a Service” platform and a web-based application programming interface, both intended to help telecommunications companies build quality voice services for the web.

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About the Author, Eric Eldon

Eric currently covers digital media technology and business news, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He also writes and edits stories about venture capital, and lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers. The startup didn't work out, but he learned a lot.

  • Heidi
    Hey Eric -

    I'm assuming it was a fire sale? Jaxtr was running low on cash/not generating enough profit to maintain its existence. What's next OOMA?
  • I've been trying to get more out of the companies and I haven't so far. A firesale is a possibility. Dunno about ooma.
  • SammyJ
    Jajah and Jangl merged??? You sure about that...this is the first i've heard of it. I know some of the folks from Jangl left to join JAJAH, ant the story this piece links to is regarding Jangl using Jajah's platform, but no merger.

    Last i heard Jangl was wandering off into the distance while jajah continues to go strong,,,

    And are we still persisting that Skype's sale was misguided? From whose perspective - surely not eBay's who is raking in millions of dollars profit.
  • "Merged" is an incorrect way of referencing the articles we wrote about, where Jangl and Jajah first formed a strategic partnership, then Jangl sold its assets to Jajah, and some employees moved over.

    I'm not the first person to question eBay's purchase of Skype; and, also, Skype is spinning out of eBay.

    I'm not saying there's no business in VoIP -- I'm just pointing out the issues.
  • JohnGabrikh
    Jaxter bring the new concept in the VoIP industry and good to know that Sabse take up this project, according to recent report from telecomTV the race is in between Skype, truphone, Jajah, Fring, Vopium and Nimbuzz. So that will interesting to watch that how Jaxter perform among them!!