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Jajah And The Track Record Of Intel Capital

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by Kevin Maney
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May 10 2007 12:00am EDT

Jajah and the Track Record of Intel Capital

A lot is being made today of Intel putting $20 million into Jajah, an Internet voice communication company. Stories are saying that with Intel's backing, Jajah could give Skype fits.

While past is not necessarily prologue in tech, it's worth pointing out that Intel Capital has a pretty lousy record of turning anybody into a big winner.

I happen to have saved a document from 2000 that lists Intel Capital's portfolio. There are 103 companies on the list. A few of them rose to the level of being moderately interesting -- Inktomi (bought by Yahoo), Oblix (bought by Oracle), VA Linux. The biggest success might be Red Hat.

The rest? Long forgotten names like AltoWeb and Enfish Technology. Some chug along under the radar, like Rambus. Lots were bought or sucked into some other enterprise.

For a big-corporation venture fund, that might be a fine performance. But the point is, if anyone thinks a shot from Intel will suddenly make Jajah a threat to Skype... history argues otherwise.

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