PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Web conferencing services continues to dominate the total Web conferencing industry in terms of adoption, revenues, and usage. As growth and profitability are consistent, this space expects to attract more investments from the Private Equity community.

"The premised-based solutions still have technology risks and although the general consensus is that its growth will surge after 2007, it will be mild for the next few years," say Frost & Sullivan Financial Research Analysts Raja S. "This uncertainty makes it less attractive to PE firms in the near future."

Frost & Sullivan reveals that revenues in this market totaled $567.1 million in 2004 and expects to reach $1.10 billion by 2007.

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants with an overview of the World Web Collaboration - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities, then send an e- mail to Mireya Castilla, Corporate Communications, at mireya.castilla@frost.com with the following information: your full name, company name, title, telephone number, e-mail address, city, state, and country. We will send you the information via email upon receipt of the above information.

Web conferencing services represented more than 75 percent of the total revenues in 2004. Over the past couple of years, on-premised software providers have looked to obtain a major portion of the growing Web conferencing services market.

Frost & Sullivan expects that hosted Web conferencing service will continue to grow at robust growth rates, especially since its providers have not tapped the lion's share of the market.

Both larger and smaller firms have shown increase in revenues for the period 1999-2004. However, when it comes to operating margins, the larger firms clearly outperform the smaller peers mainly due to their lower selling, general and administration expenses.

The industry is witnessing the larger participants in the market aggressively acquiring the smaller participants in an effort to improve revenues and gain a competitive advantage. In addition, companies are seeking to expand their current offerings to differentiate from the competition and offer full product suites.

"The average spending on SGA for large cap segment was 22.5 percent for the period 1999 to 2004, while it was 42.8 percent for the small & medium cap segment during the same period," explains Raja. "Nevertheless, both groups have witnessed an increase in R&D to sales, as there is a growing requirement for new products due to the changing consumer needs and the market is highly technology intensive."

World Web Collaboration - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities, part of the Financial Benchmarking & Analysis in the Software Industry (9491- F1 subscription), provides an overview into the various segments in the industry including Web conferencing software and Web conferencing services. This study highlights the major market and financial trends in the key growth segments of the current world collaboration industry in the Web conferencing software market. Interviews are available to the press.

Frost & Sullivan's Business and Financial Services group serves clients around the world in all aspects of financial analysis, market research and monitoring, due diligence, idea generation, opportunity analysis, investment valuation, and other proprietary research.

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World Web Collaboration - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities F529-F1 Contact: Mireya Castilla Corporate Communications - North America P: 210.247.3830 F: 210.348.1003 E: mireya.castilla@frost.com Janina Hillgrub Corporate Communications - Europe P: +49 (0) 69 77 0 33 11 F: +49 (0) 69 23 45 66 E: janina.hillgrub@frost.com Sarah Lourdes Corporate Communications - Asia Pacific P: +603 6204 5878 F: +603 6201 7402 E: sarah.lourdes@frost.com Sharmin Jassal Corporate Communications - Australia P: +61 2 8247 8900 F: +61 2 9252 8066 E: sharmin.jassal@frost.comhttp://www.frost.com/

Keywords in this release: World Web Collaboration, Web conferencing, investment, research, information, market, trends, technology, service, revenues, operating margins, SGA, R&D, PE

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

CONTACT: Mireya Castilla, Corporate Communications - North America,
+1-210-247-3830, or fax, +1-210-348-1003, or mireya.castilla@frost.com , or
Janina Hillgrub, Corporate Communications - Europe, +49-0-69-77-0-33-11, or
fax, +49-0-69-23-45-66, or janina.hillgrub@frost.com , or Sarah Lourdes,
Corporate Communications - Asia Pacific, +603-6204-5878, or fax,
+603-6201-7402, or sarah.lourdes@frost.com , or Sharmin Jassal, Corporate
Communications - Australia, +61-2-8247-8900, or fax, +61-2-9252-8066, or
sharmin.jassal@frost.com , all of Frost & Sullivan

Web site: http://www.frost.com/