Richard Allen Harding Passes Away

I was saddened to learn that last month Richard Allen Harding had passed away. Richard had been in the telecommunications business since the early 80s and became most well known to us in the prepaid industry through his roles as Chief Operations Officer for 9278, Chairman of the now defunct International Prepaid Communications Association (IPCA) and most recently as President of his own company Giraffe Communications.

While I never new Richard on a personal level, I did have the opportunity to meet and discuss with him a few times at the various InteleCard Expos. He was a very tall guy and heavy in stature and was intimidating but after having met and spoke with him I had realized that his size was not representative of his personality. He seemed very kind and genuine. He will be greatly missed in this industry!

Richard was 57 years old and passed after a brief battle with a yet unknown illness.

King City DMV Phone Card Commercial

Here is a commercial for the King City DMV prepaid calling card.

IDT Announces Move To Smaller Headquarters

After years of downsizing it's number of employees, IDT announced today that they will be downsizing their square footage as well.

According to their press release, sometime within the next 90 days, the company will relocate it's headquarters, currently located at 520 Broad Street (former headquarters of Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company) down the street to the smaller 550 Broad Street building. The move, according to IDT Chairman Howard Jonas, is a cost savings measure aimed at reducing costs: “We have fewer employees than we did several years ago, and, as a result, we now use considerably less corporate office space. Consequently, we have decided to consolidate our operations into a more cost effective facility.” The company has less than 600 employees left at the location and the cost to maintain the roughly 200,000 square foot building alone exceeds 5 million annually.

IDT moved to Newark back in 2000 when it outgrew their smaller Hackensack location. Lured by lucrative tax breaks by local and state agencies, the IDT buildings giant American flag became a fixture in the Newark skyline for almost a decade. Recently the company began looking for new tenants to occupy many of it's now empty floors but the challenge of renting in Newark has proved a daunting task with many surrounding buildings also half empty and desperate for tenants.

According to the Star Ledger the building, which is owned by an affiliate company, will most likely go into foreclosure but Howard Jonas said it will try and work something out with the lenders.