(The following is from Rich Tehrani’s (News - Alert) VoIP blog:)

On the face of it you might not see a merger between NET and Quintum (News - Alert) as something predictable. NET is on the west coast, while Quintum is on the east. Quintum has had a consistent branding message over the past decade or so and NET (News - Alert) has not.

But there is an area where both companies do play and that is in unified communications and specifically how UC relates to Microsoft (News - Alert). You see, both companies are working closely with the Redmond-based software company.

This is where there is some overlap. Quintum sells gateways for Microsoft’s UC solutions and NET has partnered with Microsoft and Unisys to provide voice integration into hosted exchange environments.

If you haven’t heard about NET, take a look at this article I wrote about the company back in June 2004 when they were called net.com.

In a conversation with Quintum’s VP of Marketing I got to learn a great deal about this merger. As Chuck tells it, Quintum is now part of a much more established organization. The company will continue to operate as a division of NET and they will be in a position to much better support customers and pursue growth goals.

NET has told the Quintum team they appreciate the company’s position in the market and don’t want to change this.

I asked about product integration between the two companies and Chuck said there are technical synergies and how those will manifest themselves is yet to be seen.

I asked about how this news will help the competitive position of Quintum in the market. Chuck says NET has a higher-end VoIP line focused on the government while Quintum focuses more on the business space. Rutledge says “There is a great deal of synergy here.” He continued, “Being part of a larger organization will allow us to compete in areas that use the higher-end equipment.” He also mentioned Quintum will now have better access to companies looking to work with larger organizations.

-------

Rich Tehrani is President and Group Editor in Chief at TMC (News - Alert). In addition he is the Chairman of the world’s best attended VoIP event, Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.