Dubber
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| ASX: DUB | |
| Industry | Technology |
| Founded | 2011 |
| Founder | James Slaney, Steve McGovern, Adrian Di Pietrantonio |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Website | www.dubber.net |
Dubber is a cloud based call recording software which operates as a software-as-service (SaaS) and voice data offering. Dubber was founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2011 by James Slaney, Steve McGovern and Adrian Di Pietrantonio, and predominantly sells to Telecommunications Service Providers and Enterprise customers. [1][2]
History
[edit]In 2015, Dubber listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) under the code DUB.[3]
In May 2015, Dubber passed a series of interoperability tests with BroadSoft's unified communications software. This combined solution allowed users to deploy call recording on top of their BroadSoft network without the need of any additional hardware.[4] Following this news, in June 2015, Dubber announced growth of 141% in users for the first half of that year.[5]
In 2016 Dubber announced a partnership with Cisco Broadsoft.[6] A year later, in October 2017, Cisco announced that they would acquire Broadsoft.[7]
Dubber’s technology is used by many large service providers and cloud communication and collaboration providers around the world to embed call recording and voice data services into their unified communication and other services, including AT&T,[8][9] IBM,[10] Optus,[11] Telstra,[12] Cox Communications,[13] Sprint,[14] the UK’s 02,[15] and others.[16]
In October 2022, Dubber's shares were suspended from trading for failing to lodge their audited accounts.[17] When their audited results were released it was disclosed that their revenue for FY22 had been overstated by $10.3m or 29%[18]
In February 2023, Dubber announced a business restructure[19] which would result in layoffs of 40% of their employees.
In February 2024, Dubber's shares were again suspended from trading after their auditors found that $30m of funds shown on their unaudited accounts as a "term deposit" had been diverted away and "used for other purposes".[20] The CEO Steve McGovern was suspended[21] amid an investigation and the matter referred to ASIC.
In March 2024, ASIC secured interim travel restraint orders against CEO Steve McGovern and solicitor Mark Madafferi due to concerns that they may have breached the Corporations Act in respect of the suspected misuse of term deposit funds.[22]
When Dubber released its interim financial for the half year ended December 2023 on 14 April 2024,[23] it revealed that $60m of funds had been deposited in the trust account between 2019 and 2021. Despite finding that "certain personnel" of the company and associated entities had been recipients of payments from this trust fund, Dubber took no action in relation to any of these personnel. It did find that there was sufficient evidence to terminate the employment of CEO Steve McGovern with immediate effect.
When Dubber's shares resumed trading on April 17 2024 after a seven week suspension, their price crashed by 75%,[24] one of the worst share price falls in the history of the ASX.[25]
Reporting by The Age in June 2024 revealed that $75m of cash had been moved from Dubber to a trust account held by the law firm of Mark Madafferi, who was known for providing legal services to "some of Melbourne’s most well-known gangland identities, including convicted killers and drug dealers".[26] The Age alleged that forensic accountants had identified at least one transfer from the trust account to "an underworld figure".
Technology
[edit]Dubber's call recording and voice data solutions are natively hosted in the cloud, allowing its services to be embedded in third party telecommunication and cloud collaboration (UCaaS) solutions.[27] Dubber utilises API's to integrate call recording data into third party software and telecommunications services.[28]
Dubber’s call recording services achieved certification for compliance call recording on Microsoft Teams, in February 2021.[29][30]
In April 2021, Dubber announced that its call recording and voice AI service would interoperate with Zoom and Zoom Phone.[31]
In June 2021, Dubber launched its foundation partner program, a significant expansion of its product model whereby telecommunications carriers and UCaaS services can embed the Dubber call recording service in all user accounts. Cisco Webex Calling and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Cloud (UCM) were the first such services launched on the program.[32]
On 2 Dec 2021, the company announced an agreement with BT (formerly British Telecom) whereby BT would use Dubber as their default recording and conversational solution in the BT Meetings suite of managed services, including Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex Calling and Zoom Phone.[33]
On 13 December 2021, Dubber and Optus announced that they would include the Dubber platform on the Optus Mobile network to provide the Dubber platform for enterprise customers in Australia.[34]
Acquisitions
[edit]Dubber announced its first acquisition in May 2020, acquiring Australian-based on-premise call recording company CallN. CallN was previously partly owned by Telstra.[35]
Dubber acquired UK based Speik, a leading provider of PCI compliance and call recording solutions in the UK in December 2020 for A$38 million.[36]
In September 2021, Dubber announced that it had acquired Brisbane, Australia based Notiv, a developer of cloud-native AI-based products that turn meetings into transcribed notes, summaries, signals, and other actions.[37]
References
[edit]- ^ "Bloomberg Markets". Bloomberg. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
- ^ "ASX Spotlight" (PDF). ASX. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
- ^ "ASX Notice" (PDF). ASX. ASX.com.au. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
- ^ Jeniffer, Germano. "Dubber Now Available Worldwide With Broadsoft". WhatTech. whattech.com. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
- ^ "Quarterly Report 1 April - 30 June 2015" (PDF). ASX. ASX.com.au. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
- ^ Steve, Anderson. "BroadSoft Gets a New Set of Call Recording Options with Dubber". Call Recording. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
- ^ "The 25 best companies to work for, based on employee satisfaction". Business Insider.
- ^ "AT&T Business Adds Dubber Unified Call Recording (UCR) and Voice AI". 23 February 2021.
- ^ Gottliebsen, Robert. "Dubber a remarkable Australian global innovation and marketing story". Retrieved April 15, 2021.
- ^ "Dubber Signs Hybrid Cloud agreement with IBM".
- ^ "Optus Loop integrates Dubber cloud call recording solution for SMBS".
- ^ "Dubber and Telstra to scale cloud call recording and AI platform". 2 February 2020.
- ^ "Cox Business Adds Dubber's Call Recording Services".
- ^ "Dubber Call Recording Capability Available on Sprint Smart UC Platform - Media Releases".
- ^ "Australian voice AI company Dubber acquires UK-based Speik for $38 million". 22 December 2020.
- ^ Boyd, Tony. "Entrepreneurs flock to telco sector". Retrieved April 15, 2021.
- ^ Raszkiewicz, Owen. "Dubber Corp Ltd (ASX:DUB) share price SUSPENDED: why?". Rask Media. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
- ^ Raszkiewicz, Owen. "Dubber Corp Ltd (ASX: DUB) share price is in a bad place, now what?". Rask Media. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
- ^ "ASX Announcement: Business Restructure to Achieve Goals from Reduced Cost Base". February 28, 2023.
- ^ Wilmot, Ben. "Dubber cash chase turns to $30m bank account". The Australian. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
- ^ Maxwell, Emily. "Dubber uncovers financial anomaly, immediately attempts to recoup $26.6m and suspends CEO". The Sentiment. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
- ^ "Managing Director of Dubber Corporation restrained from leaving Australia". Retrieved March 25, 2024.
- ^ "Appendix 4D and Interim Financial Report 31 Dec 2023". Retrieved April 29, 2024.
- ^ "Why is this ASX stock crashing 75% on Wednesday?". Motley Fool. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
- ^ "Dubber sees one of the 'worst share price falls in history of ASX'". Sky News. Retrieved April 29, 2024..
- ^ Danckert, Sarah (June 14, 2024). "The fallen tech titan, a suburban gangland lawyer and a $26.6m mystery". The Age.
- ^ Ben Moore (May 18, 2021). "Dubber revamps portfolio with 10 new products".
- ^ "Dubber shares fly on North American inroads". proactive investors. 21 January 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
- ^ "Dubber Earns Microsoft Teams Call Recording Certification". 12 February 2021.
- ^ "Dubber Unified Call Recording for Microsoft Teams".
- ^ Carter, Rebekah. "Dubber Introduces Zoom Voice AI and Call Recording". Retrieved April 20, 2021.
- ^ "Webex Calling now includes expanded call recording capabilities". 2 June 2021.
- ^ "Dubber announces global call recording partnership with BT". 2 Dec 2021.
- ^ "Optus, Dubber team up for mobile voice recording for enterprises". 13 Dec 2021.
- ^ "Dubber snaps up CallN for $1.17M". 13 May 2020.
- ^ "Dubber Acquires Speik for $38 Million". 23 December 2020.
- ^ "Dubber acquires world class AI technology company Notiv" (Press release). 20 December 2021.