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WebEx Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: WEBX), is a company that provides online meeting, web conferencing and video conferencing services. Its products include "Meeting Center", "Training Center", "Event Center", "Support Center", "Sales Center" and others. The term "WebEx" is also used sometimes as a substitute for "web conferencing", such as "We'll WebEx on Thursday morning for our weekly meeting".
History WebEx was founded in 1996 by Subrah Iyar and Min Zhu. Zhu co-founded Future Labs (one of the first companies to produce multi-point document collaboration software) in 1991. Zhu met Iyar, then a vice president and general manager of Quarterdeck Inc., when Quarterdeck acquired Future Labs in 1996. Iyar was named president of Future Labs, which had been made a Quarterdeck subsidiary and the same year Iyar and Min went on to co-found WebEx. Securities NASDAQ, an equity securities market, has include Webex in the NASDAQ Global Select Market, the exchange with the highest initial listing standards. Services All WebEx applications are built on the MediaTone platform and are supported by the WebEx MediaTone Network, a global network intended for use with on-demand programs. WebEx acquired the company Intranets.com in 2005 which provided strategic entrance into the small- and mid-size business market through Intranets.com customer base of businesses with less than 100 employees. WebEx acquired the ability to offer online collaboration tools such as discussion forums, document sharing and calendaring while Intranets.com provided access to the WebEx communications environment for its customers. On February 21 2006, AOL and WebEx announced their plan to launch a business version of AOL's instant-messaging software. AIM Pro will offer more features to help workers collaborate using conferencing tools offered by WebEx. Corporate structure The corporate headquarters of the parent organization, WebEx Communications, Inc., is located in Santa Clara, California. Corporate governance Board of Directors:
Top management team:
KPMG LLP are the independent accountants. Goldman Sachs securities fraud investigation As a result of the securities fraud investigation initiated by the SEC and various State Attorney General offices, Goldman Sachs faced charges of issuing unfair research and IPO violations. One such questionable research includes WebEx. WebEx management dictated to Goldman Sachs analysts what the research should and should not include. WebEx maintains the management's information was accurate. Another charge accuses Goldman Sachs of violating securities law in its allocation of shares in WebEx's initial public offering. Zhu and Zeleny legal dispute On 13 May 2005, WebEx announced that Min Zhu was stepping down as WebEx's CTO and WebEx leadership, and retiring to mainland China where he would serve as a "WebEx Fellow." . This closely followed the WebEx Second Annual Users Conference which was disrupted and then cancelled because of a demonstration by a former business partner of Zhu's, Michael Zeleny. The protest demonstration occurred amid a spate of lawsuits between the Zhu family, WebEx and Zeleny for various claims, including breach of contract and defamation. In the course of the legal dispute, Zeleny made public online that a complaint for childhood sexual abuse had been made by Zhu's daughter, Zeleny's former domestic and business partner, and alleged that Zhu diverted WebEx assets to settle that complaint. Zhu denied these claims in court records and WebEx sued Zeleny for defamation. Zeleny's claims have since been settled out of court and the WebEx counter-claim dropped. Raindance lawsuit for patent infringement On September 27 2005, WebEx sued Raindance Communications, Inc., a competitor, for patent infringement. On October 14 2005, Raindance filed a counter suit against WebEx for patent infringement. Both parties are seeking both damages and an injunction enjoining further acts they claim to be infringing on patents. On March 31, 2006, the parties agreed to the dismissal of both actions, releases of claims for past infringement, payments associated with those releases, and cross-licenses to each other’s patents. The agreement resulted in Webex receiving $1.0 million from Raindance. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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