ViewCast.com Drops the Dot-Com

ViewCast.com, a provider of Internet and networked video solutions, announced today that the company has filed a DBA to allow it to do business as ViewCast Corporation. The company claims the change of name better represents the company's expanded business strategies.

It wasn't very long ago that everyone and their brick and mortar mother were looking to add dot-com to their name. With the Nasdaq flying high, the dot-com suffix was a way to cash in. For example, in March 1999, then bookseller Computer Literacy, changed its name to Fatbrain.com with support from a $6 million print and outdoor campaign from Goldberg Moser O'Neill, San Francisco, and saw its stock rise 33 percent. Times have changed, however, and now it seems that being a dot-com is more of a kiss of death rather than a ticket to ride.

ViewCast isn't the only company to delete the dot-com. In early February, videoconferencing company FVC.com, changed its name back to First Virtual Communications, Inc.

The newly renamed ViewCast is looking to emphasize its offline as well as online ventures.

"During the past several months, we have been refining and redefining what we do, and the 'dot-com' name simply doesn't fit our current business model," said ViewCast president and chief executive officer George Platt, in a statement. "Certainly the Internet is an integral part of our business particularly for our streaming products, but ViewCast is not strictly an e-commerce venture. We provide video distribution products and services for deployment of media over all types of networks."

ViewCast provides a range of video solutions, including the Osprey Video capture cards, for streaming digital video on the Internet.