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WebEx Communications

Company type	Public Incorporated
Industry	Telecommunications software and services
Founded	February 1995
Headquarters	Santa Clara, California (United States)
Key people	Subrah S. Iyar (Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer); Vacant (President and Chief Operating Officer); Min Zhu (Founder, former Chief Technical Officer and Director)
Products	WebEx Meeting Center; WebEx Enterprise Edition; WebEx Presentation Studio; MyWebExPC.
Revenue	$US 249 Million (2004)
Number of employees	~1800 (Dec 2004)
Website	http://www.webex.com/webexhome.html

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. ^[1] 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.

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.^[2]

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:

• Alfred R Berkeley III,
• Michael T Flynn
• Subrah S Iyar
• Anthony R Muller
• Casimir Skrzypczak

Top management team:

• Subrah S. lyar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
• Michael T. Everett, Chief Financial Officer
• David Berman, Vice President of Worldwide Sales & Services
• Gary Griffiths, Vice President of Products
• David Farrington, Vice President Corporate Development and General Counsel
• Shawn Farshchi, CIO and Vice President Technical Operations
• Rick Faulk, Chief Marketing Officer and President WebEx Small Business

Legal proceedings and inquiries

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 initial public offerings 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. [3] Another charge accuses Goldman Sachs of violating securities law in its allocation of shares in WebEx's initial public offering. [4]

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." [5]. 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. [6] 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. [7] 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. [8]

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. [9]

External links

• WebEx home page
• Yahoo! Finance Messageboard for WebEx
• WebEx president plans to leave company February 23 2006
• AOL, WebEx collaborate on business version of AIM Houston Chronicle 22 February 2006

Notes and references

1. ^ Forbes Rice Fields Yield Internet Riches Russell Flannery, 4 November 2004
2. ^ Solhein, Shelley (August 8 2005). "WebEx tools get Intranets infusion". eweek.
3. ^ SEO News WebEx Employs Hidden Text on Its Web Site Robert G. Medford, 19 December 2005