Raindance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: RNDC), is a US company that provides online meeting, web conferencing and teleconferencing services. Its products include "Raindance Seminar Edition", "Raindance Meeting Edition", "Raindance Web Conferencing Pro", "Raindance Reservationless Conferencing", and others. The company is typically referred to as simply "Raindance."

History

Raindance was founded in April 1997. Originally called Vstream, the company specialized in the emerging field of internet streaming media. In 1999 the firm diversified into the web conferencing space by hosting and webcasting audio conferences using its existing streaming technology.

In 2000, Vstream changed its name to Evoke Communications and offered its IPO. In 2002, following a trademark dispute with Evoke Software, the company took the Raindance name.

The 7m-share IPO priced at $8.00, raising approximately $56m for the company and the stock commenced trading on July 25, 2000. So far in 2005, the stock has traded in a range of $1.94- $2.73, closing the month of September 2005 at $2.32. This represents a decline of approximately 70% from the IPO price. The company has also never declared dividends since going public.

The stock performance over the last five years probably reflects the company's poor earnings. Raindance has reported a net loss every year since the IPO (except 2003). The company did report profits in the first two quarters of 2005, but weaker revenues in Q2 2005 have caused concerns and chief marketing officer Brian Burch has since left the company (for historical stock and earnings information see external links).

Executive compensation does not seem excessive. According to Raindance's 2005 proxy statement, CEO Donald F Detampel, Jr. (who also serves on the Board of Directors), received a salary and bonus of close to $500,000 in 2004 (not including stock options), below the amount previously paid to former CEO Paul A. Berberian. Mr. Berberian, a co-founder of Raindance, resigned as CEO in 2003 and from the company's Board of Directors effective May 6, 2005.

Market

Raindance is grouped with WebEx, Microsoft LiveMeeting, Centra, NetSpoke and Macromedia Breeze among others in the web conferencing industry.

External links

• Raindance Communications Web Site
• ZDNET Article: Web conferencing market heats up
• Yahoo historical prices and SEC filings for Raindance