wardmundy
Nerd Uno
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2007
- Messages
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Congrats to Digium and Sangoma.
I gotta admit I didn't expect this merger/acquisition, as I didn't realize Digium was losing $4M per year, but I guess it makes sense, it's a vertical market consolidation!
Question, will Mark Spencer, and other the key Digium team members and Asterisk dev/architect contributors, become part of Sangoma? Work in Greater Toronto Area, Canada? Remotely work in Huntsville Alabama the spiritual origin of Asterisk?
A number of you have privately reached out for my opinion on the Sangoma acquisition of Digium so I thought I'd just post a few thoughts for everyone to consider. I am hopeful but anxious about the acquisition primarily because of financial considerations that have little to do with how well the Digium and Sangoma/Schmoozers will work together. The compatibility component is the easy part of this marriage. Here's why.
Over the past 5 years, Sangoma has had an average annual net operating loss of approximately $400,000. They actually have shown an operating profit over the past 4 years. Last year, they almost hit $1 million ($800,195 to be exact) thanks in part to the glowing Schmooze/FreePBX financials. Now Sangoma has increased its debt from $4 million to $25 million which they estimate will cost them at least 6% interest annually. That's $1.5 million just in first-year interest for the math challenged. The press release indicates they plan to pay off the loan in 7 years. That means they'll need to come up with an additional $3.5 million annually to meet the 7-year payoff projection. Adding the interest and principal payments, that comes to about $5 million the first year, $4.7 million the second year, and $4.5 million the third year to stay on track to meet their target. Keep in mind that Sangoma also reported a $4 million dollar loss by Digium as part of the purchase agreement. Thus, if the current Digium infrastructure remains in place, that could translate into roughly $9 million of added expense for Sangoma in the coming year.
If you're a current Digium employee, I'd suggest you dust off your resume promptly. There will need to be massive layoffs somewhere in order to meet these projected targets. HINT: It's not going to be in the Schmoozer Dept. which appears to be the most profitable component in the Sangoma arsenal. With the exception of a handful of talented programmers in the Digium stable, I cannot help thinking pretty much everyone else will be gone by Groundhog's Day. Time will tell.
A number of you have privately reached out for my opinion on the Sangoma acquisition of Digium so I thought I'd just post a few thoughts for everyone to consider. I am hopeful but anxious about the acquisition primarily because of financial considerations that have little to do with how well the Digium and Sangoma/Schmoozers will work together. The compatibility component is the easy part of this marriage. Here's why.
Over the past 5 years, Sangoma has had an average annual net operating loss of approximately $400,000. They actually have shown an operating profit over the past 4 years. Last year, they almost hit $1 million ($800,195 to be exact) thanks in part to the glowing Schmooze/FreePBX financials. Now Sangoma has increased its debt from $4 million to $25 million which they estimate will cost them at least 6% interest annually. That's $1.5 million just in first-year interest for the math challenged. The press release indicates they plan to pay off the loan in 7 years. That means they'll need to come up with an additional $3.5 million annually to meet the 7-year payoff projection. Adding the interest and principal payments, that comes to about $5 million the first year, $4.7 million the second year, and $4.5 million the third year to stay on track to meet their target. Keep in mind that Sangoma also reported a $4 million dollar loss by Digium as part of the purchase agreement. Thus, if the current Digium infrastructure remains in place, that could translate into roughly $9 million of added expense for Sangoma in the coming year.
If you're a current Digium employee, I'd suggest you dust off your resume promptly. There will need to be massive layoffs somewhere in order to meet these projected targets. HINT: It's not going to be in the Schmoozer Dept. which appears to be the most profitable component in the Sangoma arsenal. With the exception of a handful of talented programmers in the Digium stable, I cannot help thinking pretty much everyone else will be gone by Groundhog's Day. Time will tell.
I moved to VitalPBX (great system) to get away from Freepbx but now not sure what the future will bring, I guess it's wait and see. Maybe it's time for PIAF to revisit FusionPBX, as a test yesterday I fired one up with there provided script on a Debian server and it was done in 7 min, set a new tenant/domain, extensions, gateway, outbound routes & inbound routes all very simple, now just time to play with the rest.
Gary,
Funny you'd mention that...
Is that on OpenVZ?
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