14 DAY TRIAL // Reuters no longer has the right to use the FaceTime technologies that, until now, have supported the instant messaging service of the company. The United States District Court Southern District of New York ruled that, as of August 1, Reuters would cease to have access to FaceTime support, as the media group had not paid its debts since January.
The grace period allows the use of FaceTime technologies integrated in the IM service until the end of July. After that, over 100 customers in the financial business industry will be affected, if Reuters does not come up with another engineering solution. "While FaceTime is understandably pleased that our intellectual property is protected, we are very concerned about what this outcome means to customers' compliance status." says Kailash Ambwani, President and CEO of FaceTime.
As Ambwani adds, 9 of the 10 major American banks use FaceTime technologies, many of them integrated in the Reuters instant messaging service. Without an alternative, the banking industry, along with others, will face serious problems, which the FaceTime official said they tried to prevent by approaching Reuters with a contract extension. Since Reuters did not agree with the terms, the company filed a lawsuit against its former partner.
Reuters' officials stated, during a previous appearing in the lawsuit, that FaceTime had never said anything about the importance of the $150,000 representing the debt, and that the amount of money was nothing when compared with the $1,450,000 Reuters had already paid for its partner's services. Judging by this statement, it may seem that the financial businesses environment could have been destabilized by mistake.
Eran Barak, Global Head of Strategy, Collaboration Services at Thomson Reuters, admitted that finding another partner to take the place of FaceTime might be difficult and that the current situation, of being in between two collaborations, could take its toll on clients. "If Thomson Reuters were suddenly unable to make use of the Reuters Messaging compliance product, Thomson Reuters' customers would be crippled in their day-to-day business operations," Barak explained.