Vonage: Okay, Yeah, We Might Be Toast

Posted by John Carney, Apr 19, 2007, 2:32pm

screwedcrackcharttoast.JPGVonage warned yesterday that it’s troubles with Verizon have it teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, more or less prompting everyone in the world who doesn’t own stock in the company to say “we told you so.” Even as Vonage went public last year, skeptical observers and short sellers have been tearing into the company’s prospects. Until now, Vonage management’s statements have made it sound like they were born with rose-tinted glasses in their mouths.

Since the initial public offering, Vonage’s shares have dropped more than 80 percent. They are locked in a life-or-death patent infringement case against Verizon.

Over at the Motley Fool, Dave Mock greets the news with mock-shock and horror.

Absolutely stunned. That was my reaction to Internet telephony provider Vonageadmitting in its recent 10-K filing that it could be forced into bankruptcy at the behest of legal attacks from the likes of rival Verizon Communications. Who would have thought it could end like this?

We actually dropped Vonage, more or less, from DealBreaker commentary sometime last year. Our graphic--representing Vonage screwed on crack, toast, and in a freefall--was simply too cluttered to keep up with the company's bad news.


Vonage 10-K [SEC]

No Surprise From Vonage [Motley Fool]

0Recommend this! 9Comments
Posted in: Bankruptcy, Companies, Vonage

Comments

Posted by anon, Apr 19, 2007 4:39PM

The dumbest thing I did yesterday was pick 32K shares of VON for the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio contest, looking for an uptick of even a couple of pennies.

In the real world does anybody sell VON except as short?

Posted by BSD, Apr 19, 2007 4:51PM

anon,

VON = Von's companies, it was a REIT that operates the Von's supermarkets. Has been acquired.

VG = Vonage. The short float on that one isn't even as big as you might think. Still anybody going long VG right now has some major balls or inside scoop. Anyways, hold it for now. It seems floored around 3 right now, if there are any good news it can still climb to like 3.5.

Posted by anon, Apr 19, 2007 4:55PM

I meant VG. It's been a long day.

Posted by abe, Apr 19, 2007 5:44PM

Indeed it has been. Funny, wasn't the (former) CEO Synder calling sellers "stupid" and/or irrational a few weeks back? What a shitshow.

Posted by BSD, Apr 19, 2007 7:22PM

abe,

Yeah Vonage's slogan: "one good decision amongst many bad ones" - so true for my buddy's short-only fund last quarter!

Posted by MUSKY, Apr 19, 2007 7:46PM

I am not surprised. It had to be like this. Their customer support always sucked. I swithced to another provider last year. Whew!!.
They are interested only in signing up new customers not providing good service.
Boooo Vonage

Posted by 10803, Apr 20, 2007 9:45AM

For Christ's sake, John, can't you learn the difference between "it's" and "its"? Didn't they teach you that shit at Stuyvesant?

Posted by John Carney, Apr 20, 2007 10:47AM

Oddly, 10803, I remember the first day I learned this rule in Mrs. Rooney's class in IS 70.

It struck me as wrong then, and it still strikes me as wrong. It's arbitrary to drop the ordinary signifying for possessives--the apostrophe--in the case of "it." I understand that we do this in order to clear up confusion between the possessive and the conjunctive but I don't believe that this is often a real problem. The context makes it clear.

I do follow the rule in my writing, however, simply because I am completely lacking in the instinct to correct the mistakes of the English language as it has been handed down to us. Typos and errors creep in, at times, in published writing, and you may want to adjust your expectations to this reality. The error you cite here is common in highly edited works of literature, as well as periodicals and newspapers. The bulk of words published each day make it impossible for even a newspaper with an army of copy-editors like the New York Times to catch every spelling, grammatical, usage or typographical error.

We strive for perfection here at DealBreaker but we do occasionally miss the mark. Our work is offered free to all comers, and in order to reduce overhead we don't employ copy-editors. In order to keep the site fresh and keep up with breaking news, our pieces are published in short-order after they have been written. Fortunately, we have the ability to correct errors after they've been made. If you spot them, I invite you email us at tips@dealbreaker.com. Or leave a comment if you derive added utility from displaying your copy-editing skills in a public forum.

Posted by Lee D, Apr 20, 2007 11:12AM

I've always found the following guide to be a big help:

http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif

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