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Packet 8 addresses shareholder concerns.SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT), provider of Packet8 broadband Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and videophone communications services, today issued the following open letter to its shareholders:
Dear 8x8 Shareholders, Over the past few days, I have received calls from a number of shareholders who expressed concern about 8x8 and the future of the VoIP industry. I would like to take this opportunity to comment on some recent events in the VoIP industry and at 8x8, Inc., which I believe have unjustifiably affected 8x8's stock price and valuation. As you know, James Sullivan, our previous CFO, resigned effective June 30, 2006. Let me assure you that Mr. Sullivan's resignation is in no way indicative of any disagreement amongst the executive management team nor does it reflect any undisclosed financial issues with the company. I would also like to point out that our Annual Report on form 10-K was filed on June 14th, 2006 and PricewaterhouseCoopers, our auditors, have given us a clean audit opinion without any caveats regarding a going concern opinion, our corporate governance practices, or our compliance with Sarbanes Oxley rules. On June 20, 2006, we appointed Daniel Weirich as our interim CFO, and I am confident he will continue the good work, financial controls and procedures established by Mr. Sullivan. Some of the decline in our stock price may well be due to the current overall market declines, as well as the results of the recent IPO of one of our direct competitors, which seems to have affected the valuation of a number of other VoIP companies, including 8x8. I would like to take this opportunity to explain some of the key differences between 8x8's Packet8 services and other VoIP services and why our approach to this business will result in potentially better overall financial results for your company. First, Packet8 services comprise not just residential VoIP, but also a rapidly growing small business hosted IP PBX service, Packet8 Virtual Office. The Virtual Office service is sold primarily to small businesses of 3-20 lines but, more recently, some larger businesses have also purchased Virtual Office and we expect this trend to continue. Virtual Office provides 8x8 with much higher margins than residential services and also benefits from lower churn rates. Many of our customers are saving more than 50% of their previous telephone costs and are also receiving many more features. In short, businesses love the service. We intend to spend additional resources building the channels and expanding the research and development for this service. Second, Packet8 services also include video. The Packet8 videophone service is an amazing offering which has generated a very loyal customer base. I am very pleased to announce that after extensive negotiations with our supplier resulting in significantly lower costs, we will be resuming sales of the DV326 videophone with deliveries expected to commence in late August. We will be accepting pre-orders for the videophone in July. We are also continuing development of new videophone technologies and are working on a new, lower cost, next generation videophone platform. Third, consistent with the points above regarding video, we remain extremely judicious about our customer acquisition costs. We have absolutely no intention of competing with nonsensical consumer promotions and advertising whereby customers added will never be considered profitable subscribers. We monitor our customer acquisition costs closely to ensure, wherever possible, that we only add subscribers who will be profitable for the company over the near term. Simply put, we will not add customers at any cost. Finally, many of our shareholders are aware that the Packet8 services have been built upon our own internally developed technologies. We are completely standards based, but we own all of the underlying software and technologies that power our services. These technologies provide us with some benefits which we believe result in a quality and reliability of service that is second to none. The proof of this fact is that we provide critical telephone services to many thousands of small businesses, using only the public Internet as our connection to these customers. Businesses will not put up with poor voice quality or poor service reliability. If they experience any of these qualities, they will vote with their feet and find a different telecommunications service provider. As mentioned above, our Virtual Office services have a lower churn rate than our residential services. This low churn rate proves that our business customers have embraced our services, and that our services are not plagued by sound quality or reliability issues that have affected other VoIP service providers. We protect our intellectual property by consistently applying for and being granted patents around the key inventions associated with our business. 8x8's stock is obviously volatile, there are risks involved when investing in a company involved in an emerging market, and the risk factors contained in our SEC filings should be reviewed and understood prior to investing in 8x8, but I believe we are on the right track and we intend to stay the course as we focus on achieving free cash flow and sustained profitability. I appreciate all of the shareholders of 8x8, I am always available if you wish to contact me. All about Thursday, May 22, 2008I am not surprised that over the years there have been issues and concerns by shareholders. I have had more problems with this company then perhaps any other ever. It has been 2 months since I signed my contract and they started charging me, but they have not ported my service, and can not provide the fax service they contracted for. It took them over a month to refund the fax service that they charged me for (even thought they knew they could not provide it) and now, it has cost me more than $1200 to keep 2 different services going, and to get a new internet connection to support the service. I can't even get them to answer an email cancelling my service. They also took payments directly from my bank account without any notice, and without having even mentioned that it is the only way they do billing. NOTHING the sales rep said was true! Be careful, I am going to have to file a small claims lawsuit to get a refund for the rest of the money they took out of the account, not to mention the 19+ hours I have spent trying to resolve this. I have contacted everyone from the CEO, General Manager, Porting manager, Customer service and technical and most of them are very undertrained and inconsistant. Many of them have very poor attitudes and I certainly wouldn't let them work for my company. Be very very careful if you are considering their service. It has already cost me more than if would have if I had picked a reputable service that costs $100 more a month for the next year. Great prices, but TERRIBLE cust service!!! Don't forget to submit your entry for the "PhoneDog Days of Summer" Giveaway! Win one of over 30 of the hottest new cell phones - no registration, no spam! Just PhoneDog sharing some goodies with our visitors & loyal fans! Thanks and keep the comments coming! Packet8 Virtual Office Ranked Most Popular SMB Hosted VoIPSANTA CLARA, Calif., May 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT), provider of Packet8 residential, business and video Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services, today announced that a recent report by telecom research firm AMI Partners ranked its Packet8 Virtual Office service as the #1 hosted VoIP phone system choice by U.S. based small and medium sized businesses. According to the SMB Interest Perks Up in Hosted VoIP...Packet8 Virtual Office VoIP Phone Services to U.S. Army InstallationSANTA CLARA, Calif., March 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT), provider of Packet8 residential, business and video Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services, today announced it will be providing Packet8 Virtual Office VoIP hosted PBX phone services to a United States Army installation. The agreement, which represents 8x8's first U.S. government contract, calls for the installation of 15 Packet8 Virtual Office...Packet8 now offers international virtual numbers 8x8, Inc. Now Shipping Packet8 Tango Video Terminal AdapterSAN JOSE, Calif., March 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 2007 SPRING VON CONFERENCE -- 8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT), provider of Packet8 broadband Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and videophone communication services, today announced it has begun shipping its recently introduced Packet8 Video Terminal Adapter, a one-of-a-kind broadband phone adapter with a built-in LCD screen that turns any regular home phone into a state-of-the-art, full motion...8x8 Inc. Chairman and CEO to Speak at the B. Riley and Co. 8th Annual Las Vegas Investor ConferenceSANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT), provider of Packet8 broadband Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and videophone communication services, today announced that its Chairman and CEO Bryan R. Martin will speak at the B. Riley & Co. 8th Annual Las Vegas Investor Conference on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 at 9:15 a.m. The three day conference, to be held at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, will...8x8 Partners with World Telecom Group to Offer Packet8 VoIP ServicesLAS VEGAS, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 2007 CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW -- 8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT), provider of the Packet8 residential, business and video Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services, today announced it has signed a master reseller agreement with World Telecom Group (WTG), a premier master agent of telecommunication services catering to the lucrative small to medium sized business (SMB) marketplace. "As more and... |
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