IDT keeps a corporate finger in several pies. The company makes most of its money through IDT Telecom, which provides retail domestic and international long-distance access mainly in the US as well as wholesale voice and data services. IDT also offers wireless service and pre-paid calling cards. The company's international business, consisting of calling card sales to customers primarily in Europe, accounts for nearly one third of revenue. IDT's other operations include a capital division, which acquires and manages media and broadcast properties, and an energy services unit (ESCO), which resells natural gas and electric power in New York state. Founder and chairman Howard Jonas controls IDT with 40% ownership.
In 2006 the company acquired the remaining 60% of Net2Phone that it did not already own. Net2Phone, which was a leading provider of global hosted VoIP services for service providers, is a success story in IDT's telecom industry investment strategy. The acquired company became a privately held subsidiary of IDT, but it is being integrated into IDT's Telecom division.
In 2007 the company sold its IDT Entertainment unit, now known as Starz Media, to Liberty Media. In the deal, IDT received all of Liberty Media's shareholdings in IDT, including a 5% stake in IDT Telecom, plus $186 million in cash and some assumed debt. With that deal, the company cashed in on a unit that it built through multiple acquisitions. IDT Entertainment had been the company's second-largest unit. It included animation and live-action production studios and a home entertainment distribution business.
IDT could, at times, stand for Invest in Distressed Telecom companies. It has pieced together remnants of struggling competitive carriers Teligent, ICG Communications, and long-distance firm STAR Telecommunications. It once offered to buy parts of WorldCom (MCI). But the company's investments have sometimes provided mixed results. It hoped to repeat the success of Net2Phone with the spinoff of IDT Spectrum, but it discontinued IDT Spectrum in 2006. The company has also written off or sold its stakes in money-losing firms Teligent and ICG.
IDT pioneered international callback technology, sometimes known as call re-origination, which allows international phone callers to bypass overseas carriers (and their high rates) by rerouting calls through less expensive US exchanges. These days, to connect callers around the globe, IDT operates a network that includes switches in Europe and the US. The company leases additional capacity from other carriers, including 14 undersea fiber-optic cables that connect to the facilities of IDT's partners in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
In 2008 the company said that it would acquire a controlling stake in EGL Oil Shale in a move to expand its energy sector holdings. EGL holds leases from the US Bureau of Land Management to explore for oil shale in Western Colorado.
