During COVID, there was a mass rush of organizations toward using remote tools, notably including video conferencing tools.

It was said that “Zoom became a verb” as we all adapted to a new world of remote. Alas, not all video conferencing tools did as well as Zoom, and now one of them is shutting down. BlueJeans, which was acquired by telecom giant Verizon for $400 million in 2020, is shutting down.

BlueJeans was founded in 2009, two years before Zoom really hit its stride. Today, Zoom is alive and well, while BlueJeans is not. And, Cisco‘s WebEx, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams also continue to operate, giving the world a very competitive marketplace for video conferencing in 2023 and beyond. We offer all platforms.

The shutdown of BlueJeans will follow a multiphase sunsetting approach. The first phase comes into effect on Aug. 31 with the discontinuation of the BlueJeans Basic tier and free trial offers. The rest of the platform is set to be shut down in 2024.

The move comes as Verizon doubles-down on its core areas of focus, which include 5G, wireless, cloud and networking. We are still a very active Verizon partner.

What went wrong with BlueJeans?

Well, there are many potential reasons as to why Verizon’s efforts with BlueJeans ended in failure. Personally, I had high hopes for the acquisition when it was first announced. When Verizon acquired BlueJeans in 2020, I thought that Verizon was going to make BlueJeans a ubiquitous offering. And that BlueJeans could have been an add-on for calling plans or for internet service. Or serve as foundational technology for online events – BlueJeans was well suited to support video at scale. BlueJeans could have been part of the mobile offerings to go along with unlimited talk and text plans as a default Verizon service.

Alas, Verizon failed to take advantage of its massive scale, millions of Verizon subscribers, vast go-to-market reach, and variety of consumer and business offerings to sell BlueJeans. It seems that after the acquisition, BlueJeans became an afterthought to massive Verizon: not big enough to impress Wall Street on overall Verizon revenue. And, they were missing a “BlueJeans Champion” – lacking an initiator at Verizon with the vision and ambition to make BlueJeans into a powerhouse on the scale of Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

For two years, we acted as the BlueJeans Tier 1 ELITE partner, telling all of North America – every business – every school to GetBlueJeans.com And, they did. At scale. BlueJeans technology was great: HD Video. Dolby Audio. It was, in my opinion, amazing technology.

We are now telling the entire NYDLA | USDLA | NADLA community that we are working 7 days a week, migrating our members to Zoom, GoTo, Dialpad, etc. And, the folks at Zoom, GoTo, Dialpad are stepping up. We are providing all members with free trials of various UCaaS accounts, and providing teams of Subject Matter Experts to assist in doing BlueJeans account migrations.

Simply send an email to BlueJeansMigration@NYDLA.org or fill out the form below. You can also reach me directly, anytime.

Thomas A. Capone
Chairman, CEO
(201) 466-8442 is my cell [ texting preferred ]
Email: CEO@NYDLA.org | CEO@TAC-USA.com
TomCapone.com <<< connect with me here on LinkedIn