IDT Corporation

IDT Corporation
Public (NYSE: IDT)
Industry Telecommunications, Technology
Founded August 1990
Headquarters Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Key people
 Howard S. Jonas, Chairman
Samuel Jonas, CEO
Bill Pereira, CEO of IDT Telecom
Revenue $1.621 billion USD (2013)
$29.39 million USD (2013)
1.8% operating margin
$11.61 million USD (2013)
0.7% profit margin
Number of employees
 1,310 (2013)
Website www.idt.net
Former Headquarters on Broad Street in Newark

IDT Corporation (originally standing for International Discount Telecommunications) is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.

History

IDT was founded by entrepreneur Howard Jonas in August 1990. He founded the company after opening a sales office in Israel, receiving large international phone bills and then discovering a way to lower them by re-originating calls in the United States.[1]

In August 2000, IDT sold a stake in its Net2Phone subsidiary to AT&T for approximately $1.1 billion in cash.[2]

In November 2004, IDT launched its retail energy business, IDT Energy.[2]

On January 26, 2006, IDT Telecom, Inc. sold to GVC Networks LLC all its IDT Winstar Solution subsidiaries: Winstar Communications, Winstar Government Solutions, LLC and Winstar Wireless, LLC.

On February 17, 2006, IDT announced it would reacquire full ownership of Net2Phone, a company it had launched in the mid 1990s.

On May 16, 2006, IDT agreed to sell its IDT Entertainment division to Liberty Media "for all of Liberty Media's interests in IDT, $186 million in cash and the assumption of existing indebtedness."[3] On August 31, 2006, the sale of all of IDT Entertainment's US operations and several international operations was completed. "The remainder of the deal, to include the Canadian and Australian operations, is expected to be closed in the next few weeks after regulatory approval has been given."[4] This sale was completed on 29 September 2006.[5]

In March 2006, IDT sold its Russian telecom business, Corbina Telecom, to a Moscow-based consortium of private equity investors for net $129.9 million in cash.[2]

On October 12, 2006, IDT completed the sale of its Toucan consumer phone business in the UK to Pipex for $46.3 million in cash and Pipex stock.[6]

In 2007, IDT acquired a controlling interest in Zedge.net, a social networking community for mobile users and platform for sharing free mobile content.[2]

On September 14, 2009, IDT spun off its CTM Media Holdings to its shareholders. CTM Media Holdings included CTM Media, a distributor of print and online media advertising focused on tourist destinations, and IDW Publishing, a comic book and graphic novel publisher.[7]

On October 31, 2011, IDT spun off its energy related businesses to its shareholders as Genie Energy (NYSE: GNE).[8]

On July 31, 2013, IDT spun off its wireless specturm license and certain IP holdings to its shareholders as Straight Path Communications Inc. (NYSE MKT: STRP).[9]

The IDT owned building at 520 Broad Street in downtown Newark was home to the former Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company from 1957 to 2000.

Boss Revolution

In 2009, IDT introduced Boss Revolution, a PIN-less international prepaid calling service. Boss Revolution PIN-less allows smart phone users to make single touch international calls. Since its introduction, Boss Revolution and other PIN-less providers have largely supplanted the traditional prepaid international calling card industry. IDT subsequently announced initiatives to add various payment services to the Boss Revolution Platform, including international money transfer.[10]

PennyTalk

IDT inaugurated a service of low cost international calling called PennyTalk. Of note is the use of an Australian actress to play a woman from London during the initial PennyTalk commercial campaign.

UnionTelecard

Union Telecard Alliance is the distribution arm of IDT Telecom, and one of the largest distributors of prepaid phone cards in the United States with over 200 different phone card brands throughout the country.

Tuyo Mobile

IDT operated a wireless MVNO, Tuyo Mobile on the T-Mobile network. It was terminated on May 1, 2012.[11]

Genie Energy

IDT spun off Genie Energy to its shareholders on October 31, 2011. It is a holding company comprising several energy-related businesses. IDT Energy, a retail energy provider (an ESCO) serving New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Genie Oil & Gas, which controls the company's ventures in oil and gas and oil shale research and development in Colorado, Israel and Mongolia. Despite the name, IDT Energy is fully owned by Genie and no longer belongs to IDT.

Corporate Holdings & Operating Units

Zedge

Zedge is a mobile content discovery platform and community where users can download content to customize their mobile devices. Zedge was purchased by IDT in December 2006.[13]

Zedge was founded by Kenneth Sundnes, Tom Arnøy, and Paul Shaw in Norway in 2003. Zedge has over 30 million unique visitors per month across web, mobile web, and Android.[14] Zedge is the only site which has siteguards and moderators to clean the site.

Fabrix Systems

Fabrix Systems is an Israel based software company that developed and licenses a proprietary cloud based, scalable storage and computing platform optimized for media and other big data applications. Fabrix's platform currently powers a Tier 1 US cable operators cloud based DVR offering and is used for cloud based DVR and deep storage by other system operators in North America and Europe.[15]

Cuba Services

In February 2015 the company announced it had reached an agreement with Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA), Cuba's national telecom provider, for international long distance telephony between the United States and Cuba directly.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ramirez, Anthony (January 9, 1992). "Hot-Wiring Overseas Telephone Calls". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 IDT Annual Report 2007
  3. ↑ IDT Corporation - Press Releases
  4. ↑ UK Film and Television News - Liberty Completes First Stage of IDT Acquisition
  5. ↑ IDT Corporation - Press Releases
  6. ↑ IDT Corporation - Press Releases
  7. ↑ IDT Corporation - Press Releases
  8. ↑ - IDT Corporation press release dated October 31, 2011
  9. ↑ - IDT Corporation press release dated July 15, 2013
  10. ↑ IDT Corporation - Press Releases
  11. ↑ , 2012 http://www.webcitation.org/67WKIZp3d, retrieved 2012-05-09 Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ↑ IDT Forms Zedge Studios, Acquires Indie Comic Publisher IDW'. DigitalMediaWire, 25 July 2007
  13. ↑ Zedge.net Acquired by IDT, Pete Cashmore, Mashable, December 17, 2006
  14. ↑ "Zedge home page". Zedge Ltd. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
  15. ↑ [IDT Annual Report 2013, Fabrix System website, http://www.fabrixsystems.com/]
  16. ↑ [Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/20/idt-corp-cuba-idUSL4N0VU01Q20150220]

External links