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Company type | Public |
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Nasdaq: JCOM | |
Industry | Digital Media Cloud Computing |
Founded | December 1995 (as JFax) |
Founder | Jaye Muller Jack Rieley |
Successor |
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Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Area served | United States (holding)[ citation needed ] Worldwide (subsidiaries)[ citation needed ] |
Key people | Richard Ressler (Chairman) Vivek Shah (CEO) Scott Turicchi (President & CFO) Nate Simmons (President, Cloud Services) Steve Horowitz (President, Ziff Davis) Dan Stone (President, Everyday Health Group) |
Services | eFax eVoice Onebox KeepItSafe FuseMail Campaigner VIPRE Livedrive SMTP SugarSync Speedtest |
Revenue | ![]() |
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Total assets | ![]() |
Total equity | ![]() |
Number of employees | over 4,000 (2020) [2] |
Divisions | Business Cloud Services |
Subsidiaries | Excel Micro Salesify SMTP VIPRE IPVanish StrongVPN |
Website | j2global |
J2 Global, Inc. was an American technology holding company based in Los Angeles, California. The company provided Internet services through two divisions: Business Cloud Services and Digital Media. [3]
J2 Global was founded in December 1995 as JFax.com by Jaye Muller and Jack Rieley. [4] The company changed its registered name to J2 Global Communications, Inc. in August 2000, [5] and again to J2 Global on December 7, 2011, dropping "Communications" from its official name to reflect "…expansion from phone-number-centric services…into complementary lines of non-phone-number-centric services." [6]
On November 12, 2012, J2 Global launched its digital media division with the acquisition of digital publisher Ziff Davis for $167 million in cash. [7] On February 4, 2013, J2 Global acquired IGN Entertainment from News Corporation. [8] Terms of the IGN acquisition were not publicized.
On March 18, 2013, the company announced it had acquired MetroFax, a Bellevue, Washington, provider of Internet faxing services. [9] On April 17, 2013, the company acquired Backup Connect BV, a Dutch provider of online backup services. [10] On 19 November 2013, its media division Ziff Davis announced it acquired electronics aggregating website TechBargain.com.
In February 2014, J2 Global announced the acquisition of several companies: City Numbers, a UK-based worldwide provider of inbound toll-free numbers in over 80 countries; [11] Livedrive, a UK-based provider of online backup; [12] and Australian companies OzeFax and Faxmate. [13] On 3 April [14] 2014 J2 Global announced that it acquired Business Critical Software (also known as iCritical), a UK-based email security and management company. [15] In July 2019, J2 Global acquired the SaferVPN brand, bringing its total number of consumer VPN services to five. [16]
In April 2021, J2 Global announced its intent to spin off part of its cloud services business as a new publicly traded company known as Consensus, with the remainder of the company (consisting primarily of its media assets) being retained under the J2 Global name. [17] It was later announced that J2 Global would be renamed Ziff Davis Inc. upon its completion of the spin-off: the transaction was approved by J2 Global's board in September 2021. [18]
The company operates two divisions; the "Business Cloud Services" division includes firms such as eFax, Onebox, eVoice, VIPRE, FuseMail, Campaigner, KeepItSafe, VaultLogix, Callstream, Yotta280, Mailout Interactive, GDV, BackUp Solutions, SugarSync, Nuvotera, UnityFax, Firstway Digital, Excel Micro, Web24 Group, MXSweep, City Numbers, IPVanish, Livedrive, Moz, MetroFax, FoneBox, TrustFax, RapidFax, Send2Fax, SFax, SRFax, and Fax.com. The company's digital media division, Ziff Davis, includes brands such as Mashable, PCMag , IGN and Everyday Health.
MyFax is an Internet business communication tool which had been provided by the Ottawa-based software company Protus IP Solutions. [19] On December 6, 2010, MyFax announced that it had been acquired by J2 Global Communications, Inc.
MyFax was launched by Protus IP Solutions in 2009 as an alternative to fax machines, as it enables users to send and receive faxes from any location. [20] MyFax has grown to over 400,000 subscribers, [21] with approximately 20,000 new customers subscribing to the service each month. [19]
On December 6, 2010, MyFax announced that it had been acquired by J2 Global Communications, Inc, owners of eFax. [22]
MyFax includes the ability to send and receive faxes by email and through the internet, as well as send faxes directly from Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Windows-based applications including Google Docs, OpenOffice.org, and Intuit QuickBooks. [23] A program has been released that allows for iPhone and BlackBerry applications to be fully compatible with smartphones. [24]
MyFax is now owned by J2 Global, which has imposed very restrictive terms and conditions restricting the client's right to local number portability. Among the restrictions is a $40 US charge per number if J2 permits the number to be ported out; the company imposes many arbitrary restrictions on portability and has attempted to claim the numbers as its own property, in some cases imposing inflated penalties and unilaterally taking numbers back after they've been ported to another provider by clients. [25]
Before its acquisition by J2 Global, MyFax had received a few favorable reviews [26] including an Internet Telephony magazine product of the year for 2009. [27]
StrongVPN is a commercial VPN service owned by J2 Global and was founded in 2005. [28]
It was founded in 2005 and is one of the oldest VPN services. [29] It was acquired by J2 Global in 2019 from its former owner StackPath. [30]
It supports various protocols, including IPsec, OpenVPN and WireGuard. [31]
ZDNet considered StrongVPN "A clear and easy-to-use VPN ideal for coffee shop use". [31] Meanwhile, Tom's Hardware considered it strong and simple but noted the lack of information on its no-log policy. [32] PC World considered it "a good VPN for most people". [33]
StrongVPN has not directly answered questions about logging, but they are able to match an IP address to a customer. [34]
J2 Global has filed patent litigation cases against several companies, including CallWave, [37] Comodo, EasyLink Services International Corporation, [38] OpenText, Packetel, Protus, Venali and Zayo Group. Some of the companies filed counterclaims, some of which alleged antitrust violations of Section 2 of the Sherman Act and California's Business and Professions Code §§ 16720 and 17200. [39]
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for voice calls for the delivery of voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet.
Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. Founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology- and health-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, internet connectivity services, gaming and entertainment brands, and cybersecurity and martech tools. Previously, the company was predominantly a publisher of hobbyist magazines.
Vonage Holdings Corp. is an American cloud communications provider operating as a subsidiary of Ericsson. Headquartered in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, the organization was founded in 1998 as Min-X as a provider of residential telecommunications services based on voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). In 2001, the organization changed its name to Vonage.
Broadvoice is a privately owned company headquartered in Northridge, California. They provide Voice over IP (VOIP) cloud-based telecommunications services to small, medium, and enterprise businesses in the United States. Broadvoice offers telephone services, unified communications as a service (UCaaS), SIP Trunking, telecommunications network and security, along with virtual call centers, so business customers can use voice and video communications via a broadband Internet connection or cellular phone.
United Online, Inc. was an independent public company formed by the 2001 merger of NetZero and Juno Online Services. It is currently a subsidiary of investment bank B. Riley Financial. The company's range of products and services has evolved significantly since its inception as a provider of dial-up Internet access. This has been aided by a series of acquisitions that have included Classmates Online (2004), MyPoints (2006), and FTD Group, Inc. (2008), the latter of which was spun off as its own company in 2013. United Online is headquartered in Woodland Hills, California, United States.
Neotel, previously SNO Telecommunications, is the second national operator (SNO) for fixed line telecommunication services in South Africa. It was unveiled on 31 August 2006 in Kyalami in Midrand. Neotel is South Africa's first direct telecommunications competitor to the current telecommunications parastatal, Telkom.
Unified communications (UC) is a business and marketing concept describing the integration of enterprise communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, voice, mobility features, audio, web & video conferencing, fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), desktop sharing, data sharing, call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging. UC is not necessarily a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.
Ooma, Inc. is an American publicly traded telecommunications company based in the Silicon Valley, California area. Ooma offers communications services including Voice over IP (VoIP) calling for business, home and mobile users.
eVoice is a telecommunications service owned by j2 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:JCOM). The company manages incoming and outgoing calls using virtual phone numbers. The service was initially founded by Wendell Brown, Mark Klein, and Craig Taro Gold in 2000 and re-launched in March 2010 with an expansion of services that include both individual, personal uses as well as services for businesses.
GoTo Technologies USA, Inc., formerly LogMeIn Inc., is a flexible-work provider of software as a service (SaaS) and cloud-based remote work tools for collaboration and IT management. The company was founded in 2003, and is based in Boston, Massachusetts. On February 2, 2022 the company was rebranded from LogMeIn to GoTo.
Towerstream Corporation is a Fixed Wireless Fiber Alternative company delivering high-speed Internet access to businesses. The company offers broadband services in 12 urban markets including New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay area, Miami, Seattle, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Las Vegas-Reno, and the greater Providence area, where the company is headquartered. In 2014, Towerstream launched its On-Net fixed-wireless service offering On-Net building tenants access to dedicated, symmetrical high-speed Internet connectivity, with a premier SLA, at market-setting prices. Founded in 1999 by Philip Urso and Jeffrey Thompson (eFortress), Towerstream held its first public offering in January 2007 and traded on the NASDAQ Capital Markets under symbol TWER. In November 2016 the stock had declined in price, was delisted from NASDAQ, and moved to the over-the-counter market.
Cloud communications are Internet-based voice and data communications where telecommunications applications, switching and storage are hosted by a third-party outside of the organization using them, and they are accessed over the public Internet. Cloud services is a broad term, referring primarily to data-center-hosted services that are run and accessed over an Internet infrastructure. Until recently, these services have been data-centric, but with the evolution of VoIP, voice has become part of the cloud phenomenon. Cloud telephony refers specifically to voice services and more specifically the replacement of conventional business telephone equipment, such as a private branch exchange (PBX), with third-party VoIP service.
Protus IP Solutions Inc. provided software-as-a-service communication tools designed for small to medium businesses. Founded in 1997, Protus was a privately held company based in Ottawa, Canada which had approximately 200 employees and over 500,000 subscribers worldwide, offering its services in sixteen countries.
MegaPath was a business telecommunications company. In 2018, MegaPath was acquired by cloud service provider Fusion Connect for $71.5 million. Founded in 1996, it provides a voice, unified communications, internet access, Managed Security Services, and cloud computing services to carrier and service-provider businesses in the United States. The company was headquartered in Pleasanton, California.
AstraQomInternational is a multi-national holding company that serves the telecommunications sector. The company is a provider of VoIP services and integrated communication solutions.
Andrew Michael is a British-Cypriot tech entrepreneur and founder of Fasthosts, Livedrive and Bark.com.
Global Capacity is a Waltham, Massachusetts-based provider of telecommunications Connectivity-as-a-Service including Carrier Ethernet, used by companies for Internet access and WAN connectivity. Network services are offered using the company's One Marketplace hub, which aggregates the access and pricing information for broadband telecommunications services, including MPLS VPN, Ethernet over copper and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL). The company buys and combines multiple high-speed network connections and then resells multiple lower-speed connections to customers. The company also manages and updates LATTIS, a proprietary database of telecom pricing information.
IPVanish VPN is a US-based VPN service owned by Ziff Davis.
StackPath was an American edge computing platform provider headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Its founding team was led by Lance Crosby, who also co-founded SoftLayer Technologies, acquired by IBM in 2013.
Brooktrout Technology, Inc., later Brooktrout, Inc., was an American telecommunications company based in Boston, Massachusetts, and active from 1984 to 2005. The company was initially focused on the development of hardware and software to allow personal computers to act as fax machines, similar to GammaLink's GammaFax. The company later developed fax server hardware for local area networks before ultimately pursuing Voice over IP and videoconferencing products. In 2005, the company was acquired by EAS Group, who merged Brooktrout with another company of theirs to form Cantata Technology. Cantata was in turn acquired by Dialogic Group in 2007.