Cisco Webex is an American company that develops and sells web conferencing and videoconferencingapplications. It was founded as WebEx in 1995 and taken over by Cisco Systems in 2007. Its headquarters are in Milpitas, California. Its software products include Webex Meetings, Webex Teams, Training Center, Event Center, Support Center, Sales Center, MeetMeNow, PCNow, Webex AIM ProBusiness Edition, Webex WebOffice, and WebEx Connect. All Webex products are part of the Cisco Systems collaboration portfolio.
History
WebEx was founded in 1995 by Subrah Iyar and Min Zhu. It had its initial public offering in July 2000. WebEx was listed on the NASDAQ National Market, and then the NASDAQ Global Select Market, when that was introduced in 2006. On March 15, 2007, Cisco Systems announced it would acquire WebEx for $3.2 billion. Cisco has said that its long-term plan is to absorb WebEx at both a technology and a sales level.
Services
At the time of the acquisition, all Webex applications were built on the MediaTone platform and supported by the Webex MediaTone Network, a global network intended for use with on-demand programs. The network was designed by Shaun Bryant, Webex's Chief Network Architect, and Zaid Ali Sr, Network Architect, to be one of the first SaaS platforms on the Internet. The company acquired Intranets.com in 2005, providing entrance into the small- and mid-size business market through the company's customer base of businesses with fewer than 100 employees. It 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. On February 21, 2006, AOL and Webex announced plans to launch a business version of AOL's instant messaging software, AIM Pro, with additional features to help workers collaborate using conferencing tools offered by Webex. On September 26, 2006, the company announced plans to offer a web collaboration "mashup" platform called "Webex Connect". On November 17, 2014, Cisco announced an evolution of Webex called Project Squared. Since August 5, 2015, Webex no longer works with Windows XP. On April 18, 2018, Cisco announced that Cisco Spark would be combined into the Cisco Webex platform. Cisco Spark was a rebrand itself of the Project Squared collaboration platform. On this same date, Cisco rebranded all of the rest of their Spark products to Webex, including the Spark Room Kit—now Webex Room Kit—and Spark Board—now Webex Board. On May 15, 2020, Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer reported in the month of April 2020, they had 500 million meeting attendees, and that equated to 25 billion meeting minutes, using its video-conferencing application WebEx.
As a result of a securities fraud investigation initiated by the SEC and by various state Attorney General offices, Goldman Sachs faced charges of issuing unfair research, including coverage of WebEx, and IPO violations for the period 1999 to 2001. Webex management allegedly dictated to Goldman Sachs analysts what the research should and should not include. Webex maintains the management's information was accurate. Another charge accuses Goldman Sachs of violating securities law in its allocation of shares in WebEx's initial public offering.
On September 27, 2005, Webex sued Raindance Communications, Inc., a competitor, for patent infringement. On October 14, 2005, Raindance filed a countersuit against Webex for patent infringement. Both parties sought both damages and an injunction enjoining further acts they claim to be infringing on patents. On March 31, 2006, the parties agreed to the dismissal of both actions, releases of claims for past infringement, payments associated with those releases, and cross-licenses to each other's patents. The agreement resulted in Webex receiving 1 million dollars from Raindance.
