Just over a week ago the founders of and five engineers from VoIP services provider Jangl left for Jajah after the company failed to find a proper suitor. Following their departure, it was unclear what would happen to Jangl’s assets and remaining staff. Now we hear from multiple sources close to the deal that Live Universe has agreed to acquire both.
This appears to conclude the Jangl saga that started late last fall. Around that time, Jangl’s board began telling the founders to pursue an acquisition strategy in lieu of raising more money. The board’s decision came even when the company had closed deals (some profitable) with several partners, including Plentyoffish and Tagged.
We hear there was a disconnect between the VCs, who had a more enterprise background, and Jangl’s executives, who were set on developing a consumer-facing brand. The founders, and Michael Cerda in particular, are said to have worked diligently to carry out the board’s marching orders. But despite many companies showing interest in Jangl, it struggled to find the right company for its exit.
An acquisition deal (apparently with WhitePages.com) came close but unraveled after the terms changed and became far less acceptable. With no apparent options left, much of the company’s staff was notified that they would probably have to find new work, and it was finally announced that Jangl’s founders were indeed jumping ship.
Just what Live Universe plans to do with everything they left behind has yet to be seen. I’m sure Jangl’s partners will be interested in hearing the fate of their agreements, if they haven’t already.
There’s not much left for Live Universe to play with…
Man.
I feel for places like PlentyOfFish that integrated the Jangl technology only months ago to have it end like this. What a big time sink for everyone involved.
Hm, a ‘disconnect between the VC’s’ I wonder how often we’re going to hear that in the next couple if years.
Peter
do you follow me: Peter Urban @ Twitter
How much $ is left from the $9 million?
Do you follow me at http://twitter.com/stfu
When do the lay offs begin at Live Universe? Seriously.
@ #5
Please don’t use my name.
Peter
@6 Care to elaborate? Would love to hear more about Live Universe and their acquisition spree. Where do they get the money?
Chat is out. VIDEO is in.
going to be fun seeing some of these once cutting edge companies go down the toilet.
@5: You forgot to make fun of ‘livecrunch.com’ which is his bad attempt at trying to appear part of the “Crunch” Network.
Otherwise, 2.5/5 stars.
Maybe I’m just jealous!
http://photos-d.ak.facebook.co.....5_4414.jpg
What agency handled jangl’s PR? It was solid.
Jangl is dead & Greenspan is a loser. Will be a deadly combination.
http://valleywag.com/tech/ross.....213390.php
So how does this make sense? Jangl, which offered basically just click2call service which anyone can build quickly using asterisk or using one of the other players in the market went down because it didn’t have *any real* technology. LiveUniverse buys it to do what? Having assets and employees of company which really didn’t have any technology is just a disaster prolonged. Why wouldn’t he consider someone like TruPhone or Fring or any other such company which is offering more than just click2call? **sigh** I guess, having cash to buy around companies doesn’t necessarily give you the brains to acquire the right kind of technology.
Check out Ifbyphone. They’re doing “real” telephony integration with the web.
Jangl’s engineer team had 8 members. I don’t know from where are coming these reports that Michael Cerda and Ben Dean are taking 5 of his best engineers to go to Jajah. The majority of the ex-Jangl engineers are extremely upset with the way Michael and Ben handled the company and, specially, its closure. They simply resigned and ran away from their responsibilities.