Company: Nuera Communications Inc.
Description: VoIP infrastructure equipment
Location: San Diego
Amount Raised: $109 million
VC Firms: Comcast Interactive Capital, Cox Communications, Sandler Capital Management, Argo Global Capital, HarbourVest Partners LLC, Bay Partners, Gleacher & Co., Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank Capital Partners, SAIC Venture Capital and J.F. Shea Co. Inc.
VC Directors: N/A
Exit Type: Trade Sale to AudioCodes Ltd.
Exit Valuation: $85 million
Absolute Return: -22%
Memorable Quote: Upon the company's $20 million fourth round of financing in 2003, Bill Ingram, President and CEO, Nuera Communications, said "This financing validates our market leadership and allows us to continue building solutions that generate revenue for service providers." Market leadership would have garnered more than an $85 million exit valuation.
Memorable Awards: Nuera's ORAC VoIP gateway won BCR's "Best in Test" in 2002.
Quick Take: Looking through the roster of shareholders in Nuera, it becomes apparent that there were too many strategic investors and not enough financial ones. Where was the smart money? Maybe it was too busy seeking out WAN networking gear rather than VoIP companies. Regardless, the investors were able to salvage something from the deal, which is more than can be said for some of Nuera's rivals. And the shareholders' decision to invest a further $20 million during the doldroms of 2003 may have helped improve their return. After all, Nuera is now recording annual revenue of $16 million and by enabling the company to hold out for an exit in 2006, rather than 2003, the shareholders were able to auction the company off during a stronger exit market.

For more on Nuera's sale, see:
Light Reading
AudioCodes press release (PDF)
Jon Arnold

Technorati tags: nuera, audiocodes, comcast, voip, vc, venture capital