The FierceVoIP Fierce15 "Where are they now?"

As FierceVoIP prepares to dole out the 2009 Fierce15 Awards to innovative companies who've made waves in the IP communications space this year, we'd like to take a look back at past winners of the award to see how they've fared.

The first FierceVoIP Fierce15 Awards were presented in 2004, and the awards were given out in 2005, 2006 and 2008. Why no one was Fierce in 2007, is anybody's guess.

We've grouped the companies by award year into three broad companies: those that are "still-fierce," and remain in operation; those companies that have been acquired; and the award winners that unfortunately didn't make it and have been shuttered. We've only given updates on 2008 winners if something significant, such as acquisition or closure, occurred since they received the award. We've also selected a "still-fierce" company from 2004 and 2005 to profile in an interview about how the company has remained viable while some peers have fallen by the wayside.

We've also provided a link back to the original Fierce15 entry, so you can see what prompted us to declare the company "Fierce" at the time. The 2004 and 2005 retrospectives will run today, and we'll complete the feature Thursday with a look at the 2007 and 2008 winners. Thanks for reading!