Arkadin announced that the private equity firm previously holding majority ownership in the company is selling its stake to NTT Communications Corp - the massive communications powerhouse based in Japan. NTT will take a 91.2 percent share of the company, while Arkadin's management will retain 8.8 percent ownership.
Arkadin follows a strategy increasingly being used by the biggest solution providers in the conferencing industry. It offers a variety of technology options to customers… Some are owned by Arkadin (such as Arkadin Anywhere), some are private label versions of third party solutions (such as ArkadinVideo powered by Vidyo), and some are straightforward resale licenses for big name software such as Adobe Connect and Cisco WebEx.
Arkadin distinguishes itself by putting serious emphasis on international operations. Its website proudly trumpets the fact that it has employees in 31 countries and offers 24x7 customer service in 18 languages. Go to the company's management page and you don't just see names and job titles - you see "Hong Kong, Paris, Singapore, Sao Paolo, Beijing, London, and Atlanta."
The company is still fairly young, having been founded in 2001. But I have been noting a significant increase in its own marketing and promotional activities over the past year or two, with a corresponding uptick in "buzz" and mentions in various media channels.
As multimedia communications (particularly web and video conferencing) expands rapidly throughout the Asian marketplace, Arkadin may be very well positioned to take advantage quickly, given its presence and native-language operations. At least NTT seems to think so!
Arkadin is definitely a player to keep an eye on.
