FYI Schmooze bought by Sangoma Canada

[deano]

Looks like FreePBX and all the assets of Schmooze and Bochs have been purchased by Sangoma for 4 Million.

Could be a good or bad for those who rely on FreePBX.

Sale Closed January 1, 2015.

 

[islandtech]

It didn't take long for Sangoma to update the Schmooze.com web site
© Copyright 2011 - 2015 Sangoma Technologies. All Rights Reserved.
FreePBX is a Registered Trademark of Sangoma Technologies. All Rights Reserved.

 

[kenn10]

One wonders if FreePBX will survive as we know it. I guess Ward is wise to investigate other GUI's....just in case.

 

[billsimon]

Sangoma is a big supporter of Asterisk, FreeSWITCH, and Yate. They make high-quality hardware and have been around a long time. My feeling is that this is a great thing for FreePBX.

 

[kenn10]

My concern is that when a hardware company expands by purchasing a software company and a fax service, the resulting marriage will be expected to produce financial gains. To that end, "freebies" tend to disappear in the new company. Again, only time will tell.

I'd like to see FreePBX supported as a GUI to FreeSwitch but the original plans for that fell by the wayside.

 

[hecatae]

Press Release from Sangoma, if anyone wants to read it: http://www.sangoma.com/press-releases/sangoma-completes-acquisition-two-businesses/ it's a very hard read, going to get a coffee and digest the press release

 

[briankelly63]

First thing they should do is dump the name "Schmooze" which has negative connotations.

 

[Jay Deal]

Looks like PIAF was good at reading tea leaves about the direction of FPBX. I would think Sangoma is looking to take on Grandstream (and offer PBX appliacnes) with an acquisition like Schmooze. Hopefully Sangoma continues to embrace the spirit of open source. Only time will tell I guess.

Let me be the first to volunteer if Sangoma / FreePBX needs beta testers for new hardware

 

[billsimon]

What tea leaves? I think the amount of wild speculation here is setting us up for wagers. The only thing I'm betting on is the orange & green color scheme going away.

 

[Jay Deal]

What tea leaves? I think the amount of wild speculation here is setting us up for wagers. The only thing I'm betting on is the orange & green color scheme going away.

You''re right, it wasn't tea leaf reading, it was astrology.............j/k

A Night with the Stars: The Future of Asterisk and Open Source Telephony

We recently had an opportunity to spend one of Charleston’s coldest nights with David Duffett and Mark Spencer solving most of the world’s problems. For those of you that don’t know, Mark was the creator of Asterisk® and the founder and current CTO of Digium® while David is the Director of the Worldwide Asterisk Community
Wednesday, November 19, 2014

 

[John Taber]

If they bought it for hardware appliances that surely is short-sighted as everything is moving towards cloud and hardware as we know it is dead

I would agree on the speculation that green and orange as we know it may be becoming phased out where beta testing in the community will continue but commercial and stable releases will be supported and paid for use. Time will tell.

 

[mjbtnus]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the parallels this has to when Fonality purchased "Asterisk at Home" (aka, Trixbox) ~2005-06. Look how that turned out!! It was all warm and fuzzy at the outset, with assurances of always being a "great fit" for the "community", but little by little, I witnessed first hand the free Trixbox CE (Community Edition) wither on the vine. FreePBX is the community edition next to Schmooze's PBXact all commercial offering. With $4M to recoup and then some, Sangoma's inevitably going to have to favor what makes the most $$$ (as should any business). I sorry, but I am skeptical having been bitten by this once before. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Elastix is today probably not regretting so much rolling towards their own GUI with the upcoming (someday?!) version 3.0 (and I've not really been following all that closely the past couple of years, so not 100% how far they've gotten with it). My $0.02.

 

[vic555]

Elastix 3.0 has been released, Manual is not yet in English. Perhaps if a port knocking solution (KNOCKD) or traveling man can be appled it can be a winner.

 

[mjbtnus]

Elastix 3.0 has been released, Manual is not yet in English. Perhaps if a port knocking solution (KNOCKD) or traveling man can be appled it can be a winner.

I will have to a looksie at it then.

 

[billsimon]

Just a reminder: we have the source. So if Sangoma decides to go bonkers and turn FreePBX into ExpensivePBX, then a crack team of programmers can simply take it from the best point in time and fork it--which they would, because it's good software worth preserving. I am amazed at the pessimistic discussion here.

 

[John Taber]

You're right bill we would hope that they were just purchasing this company and not make any changes at all

I think that we all have a natural fear because we utilize FreePBX

I personally am A new user to the FreePBX community but I have already purchased several of the commercial modules and I am growing of fun this to FreePBX and the services that it allows me to offer my customers

I just hope that this does not affect my business plans for the future as there are fairly inexpensive commercial options and alternatives to FreePBX

I would prefer not to change to a different PBX as we have some time invested in this one

However if it comes down to it we may have to.

 

[wardmundy]

 

[kenn10]

Never climb a fence when you can sit on it.

Perhaps. But how did that work out for Humpty Dumpty?

 

[mainenotarynet]

Humpty Dumpty did not climb a fence. He sat on a Wall, Fell and became a Bacon, ham, sausage and mushroom omelette for all the kings men (or in the case of the US "All The Presidents Men") .

 

[phonebuff]

Kevin,

That's not KOSHER