Dialpad files for bankruptcy, gets new funding

Dialpad Communications Inc., a provider of voice over IP (VoIP) services, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday but said it has received new funding from one of its original investors to finance its reorganization.

The Santa Clara-based IP (Internet Protocol) telephony company filed a petition with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California. The company said it expects to continue to serve without interruption the roughly 14 million [m] users around the world who use its services to make voice calls over the Internet.

Dialpad said it will fund its continued operations with $1.25 million [m] in financing it secured from Sang Su Oh [cq], chairman of Korean communications software maker Serome Technology Inc., the company that originally spun off Dialpad as a separate entity. Su Oh was an investor in Dialpad during its first round of financing in April 2000, when it received $16.75 million [m] from CMGI @Ventures -- the investment arm of technology incubator CMGI Inc. -- and several individual investors.

The company recently signed a deal with Microsoft Corp. to offer PC-to-phone calls through Microsoft's Windows Messenger client.