Dare ObasanjoAug 8, 2023

Verizon is shutting down the Zoom competitor it purchased for $400 million in 2020. This isn’t even the most ignominious failed tech purchase by Verizon that’s their Yahoo acquisition.

Cellular carriers are great proofs of the saying that culture eats strategy for breakfast. Verizon and AT&T keep wanting to be tech & content players but keep botching acquisitions. They should embrace being sellers of dumb pipes who grow their business by adding random fees to phone bills https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/8/23825112/verizon-bluejeans-shutting-down-sunset

Verizon is shutting down BlueJeans, which it bought for $400 million

Verizon is shutting down BlueJeans, its Zoom competitor it acquired for a lot of money in the early days of the covid pandemic. Users on the company’s free tier will be able to use it until August 31st.

The Verge
Show threadTony DorieAug 9, 2023
@carnage4life I only ever encountered BlueJeans in use at one company out of all of the meetings I’ve been on over the years. Still, it was a better product than google meet…
Show threadJaroslav "Řezza" ŘezníkAug 9, 2023
@tdorie @carnage4life early on it was better than Google Meet but over time it lacked more and more against the competition.
Show threadTony DorieAug 9, 2023
@RezzaBuh @carnage4life I dunno - my memory is a bit hazy but I think BlueJeans back then may actually have been better than Google meet is today.
Show threadJaroslav "Řezza" Řezník
@tdorie @carnage4life no, it wasn't. We migrated from BlueJeans to Google Meet while using it in parallel and even though in the beginning, I was big fan of BlueJeans and we tried to stay on it for as long as possible, it started to break more and more often. Google Meet was on the other hand very basic meeting tool and over the years I have to say I prefer it over all other videoconferencing tools. The progress Google made is huge.
Aug 9, 2023 at 7:45pmMastodon for Android
Show threadTony DorieAug 9, 2023
@RezzaBuh I kid… somewhat… Every time I end up on a Google meet call, something about it annoys me. Video/audio quality, counterintuitive UI, sign in process are all second rate. YMMV but, my experience has been so bad, when I see a Google meet call on an invite, I start to wonder about the viability of the company that employs the person I’m meeting with.
Show threadJaroslav "Řezza" ŘezníkAug 9, 2023
@tdorie we usually ask our vendors to use our Google Meet for meetings, as when the team sees WebEx, or even Teams, they immediately freak out. And yes, even Meet has many UX issues but that's the only one you could see a real progress.
Show threadTony DorieAug 9, 2023
@RezzaBuh Personal taste I suppose. I don’t understand why I need to log into a Google account just to join a meeting. I don’t have a work account and am not keen to use my personal one for work - I think that’s my biggest issue
Show threadJaroslav "Řezza" ŘezníkAug 10, 2023
@tdorie I got it now - Google login is only required for personal non-corporate meetings. When meeting is scheduled with the corporate account, login is not required.