J2 Global

Overview

J2 Global, Inc.

type	Public
industry	Digital Media Cloud Computing
successor	Ziff Davis, Inc. Consensus Cloud Solutions
founded	December 1995 (as JFax)
founder	Jaye Muller Jack Rieley
location	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
area served	United States (holding) Worldwide (subsidiaries)
key people	Richard Ressler (chairman) Vivek Shah (CEO) Scott Turicchi (president & CFO) Nate Simmons (president, Cloud Services) Steve Horowitz (president, Ziff Davis) Dan Stone (president, Everyday Health Group)
services	eFax eVoice Onebox KeepItSafe FuseMail Campaigner VIPRE Livedrive SMTP SugarSync Speedtest
revenue	US$1.372 billion (2019)‡R1R‡
operating income	US$277.08 million (2019)‡R1R‡
net income	US$218.81 million (2019)‡R1R‡
assets	US$3.505 billion (2019)‡R1R‡
equity	US$1.311 billion (2019)‡R1R‡
num employees	over 4,000 (2020)‡R2R‡
divisions	Business Cloud Services
subsid	Excel Micro Salesify SMTP VIPRE IPVanish StrongVPN
website	J2global.com

J2 Global, Inc. was an American technology holding company based in Los Angeles, California. The company provided Internet services through two divisions: Business Cloud Services and Digital Media.[3]

History

J2 Global was founded in December 1995 as JFax.com by Jaye Muller and Jack Rieley.[4] The company changed its registered name to J2 Global Communications, Inc. in August 2000,[5] and again to J2 Global on December 7, 2011, dropping "Communications" from its official name to reflect "…expansion from phone-number-centric services…into complementary lines of non-phone-number-centric services."[6]

On November 12, 2012, J2 Global launched its digital media division with the acquisition of digital publisher Ziff Davis

Brands and subsidiaries

The company operates two divisions; the "Business Cloud Services" division includes firms such as eFax, Onebox, eVoice, VIPRE, FuseMail, Campaigner, KeepItSafe, VaultLogix, Callstream, Yotta280, Mailout Interactive, GDV, BackUp Solutions, SugarSync, Nuvotera, UnityFax, Firstway Digital, Excel Micro, Web24 Group, MXSweep, City Numbers, IPVanish, Livedrive, Moz, MetroFax, FoneBox, TrustFax, RapidFax, Send2Fax, SFax, SRFax, and Fax.com. The company's digital media division, Ziff Davis, includes brands such as Mashable, PCMag, IGN and Everyday Health.

MyFax

MyFax is an Internet business communication tool launched by the Ottawa-based software company Protus IP Solutions in 2009.[19]

An alternative to fax machines, it enables users to send and receive faxes from any location through the internet,[20] as well as directly from Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Windows-based applications including Google Docs, OpenOffice.org, and Intuit QuickBooks.[21] A program was released that allows for iPhone and BlackBerry applications to be fully compatible with smartphones.[22]

MyFax has grown to over 400,000 subscribers,[23] with approximately 20,000 new customers subscribing to the service each month.[19] Before its acquisition by J2 Global, MyFax had received a few favorable reviews[24] including an Internet Telephony magazine product of the year for 2009.[25]

On December 6, 2010, MyFax announced that it had been acquired by J2 Global Communications, Inc., owners of eFax,[26] which subsequently imposed restrictive terms and conditions on the client's right to local number portability. Among the restrictions is a $40 US charge per number if J2 permits the number to be ported out; the company imposes many arbitrary restrictions on portability and has attempted to claim the numbers as its own property, in some cases imposing inflated penalties and unilaterally taking numbers back after they've been ported to another provider by clients.[27]

StrongVPN

StrongVPN is a commercial VPN service owned by J2 Global. It was founded in 2005,[28] and is one of the oldest VPN services.[29] It supports various protocols, including IPsec, OpenVPN and WireGuard. It was acquired by J2 Global in 2019 from its former owner StackPath.[30]

ZDNet described StrongVPN as "a clear and easy-to-use VPN ideal for coffee shop use".[31] Meanwhile, Tom's Hardware considered it strong and simple but noted the lack of information on its no-log policy.[32] PC World considered it "a good VPN for most people".

J2 Global

History

Brands and subsidiaries

MyFax

StrongVPN

Awards

Litigation

External links

References