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Tom Taulli

Finance Corner

8×8: A Hidden Tech Gem

Last week, I visited the offices of 8×8 (Nasdaq: EGHT). One of the hallways had plaques of over 70 patents, covering technologies like VOIP, broadband and videophones. Interestingly enough, the company’s CEO — Bryan Martin – is responsible for 35 patents.

Even though founded over 20 years ago, 8×8 is relatively unknown. The company provides essentially a PBX system – driven by VOIP — that is affordable for small and medium size businesses. Features include: physical extensions; toll-free numbers; mobile integration (yes, there’s a cool iPhone app); and fax lines.

OK, this seems like ordinary stuff. But 8X8 has some other capabilities that make it a great offering. For example, there is web conferencing with video and web chat.

The price? The plans start at $49.99 per month. Keep in mind that a typical GoToMeeting/WebEx subscription is about the same.

All in all, 8X8 has been growing at a nice rate. Even during the financial crisis of 2008, the company was able to increase its subscriber base.

8X8 has also been smart to leverage its infrastructure. To this end, the company is now providing cloud services, such as hosting.

Currently, 8X8 has a customer base of about 23,000. However, its addressable market is over 16 million businesses in the US. In other words, the company is still in the early stages of a big market opportunity – and more importantly, it has the technologies to be a top player in the space.