The story
Founded by Demyan Kudryavtsev and Jacob Davidson in 1996.1
Deltathree was founded in 1996 by Dmitry Goroshevsky, Sophia Babkove, Damian Kudriavtsev, Elie Wurtman and Jacob Ner David to develop an Internet-based international low cost calling service using VoIP technology, and a "PC to Phone" solution, using a technology developed by Israeli company VocalTec Communications. RSL Communications, an investment firm owned by Ronald Lauder, acquired a majority stake in Deltathree the following year, before the company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in November 1999. Elie Wurtman served as CEO from the company's founding until the November 1999 IPO. During that time, Wurtman completed the first historic transcontinental phone-to-phone VoIP call with FCC Chairman Reed Hundt. In 2001, RSL Communications sold its stake in the company to billionaire entrepreneur Yitzhak Tshuva who later sold his shares at a profit.
In 2001, the original company founders left to start a new company named CrossOptix, that developed ultra-high speed optical interconnect solutions; Noam Bardin was appointed as CEO; Bardin left in 2007 and later become CEO of popular GPS application Waze.
The company's shares were delisted by NASDAQ in March 2008 after falling below $1, forcing Deltathree stock to trade through the OTC Bulletin Board.
In February 2009, Deltathree announced that it had sold a majority stake (54.3%) to D4 Holdings for $1.17 million in cash. Under the agreement D4 also received the right to pick up an additional 30 million shares at 4 cents a share for the next ten years.
From Wikipedia’s article on Deltathree, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4