RSSVonage Files for IPO, Hires New CEO
By Ed Oswald | Published February 8, 2006, 1:55 PM
Vonage filed for an IPO on Wednesday, hoping to raise a quarter-billion dollars in investment capital as well as announcing the hiring of a new CEO. Mike Snyder, formerly president of security firm ADT, will take over February 27 replacing founder Jeffrey Citron.
Niether the amount of shares nor a price range were offered in the company's SEC filing, however the announcement ends months of speculation that the company was planning to go public. The company has more than 1.4 million customers, however still has not turned a profit in the extremely competitive VoIP industry.
The company has spent heavily to acquire subscribers, and its prospectus shows an average expenditure of $214 USD per customer. It only costs Vonage $8.31 USD per customer to provide service, a third of the $24.99 USD monthly fee it charges its customers.
Even with the high profit margin, it was not enough to offset the company's huge marketing costs. The company reported a net loss last quarter of nearly $190 million, noting that it would continue to postpone profitability in favor of gaining new subscribers.
"While this strategy will have the effect of delaying or preventing us from generating net income in the near term, we believe that our focus on growth will better position us as a strong competitor in the long term," the SEC filing reads.
Look into SuRocket. By far less expensive than Vonage and far superior voice quality. $199 one time gets you TWO numbers, unlimited calling, all the gadgets, free shipping, free cordless phones -PERIOD- No hidden anything.
...crap - I sound like a commercial - UGH!!
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|Verizon is usually no picnic to deal with either. Phone issues and dsl issues often take several calls to resolve and have long wait times on hold before you even get to try. I'm not jumping on the Vonage bandwagon just yet, but I will be curious to see how this plays out.
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|Heh Vonage TS sucks really bad. When you finally get a hold of someone you can barely understand them. I think they are using the rejexts from Dell TS/CS call centers.
The service is great but after looking into packet8 I think I may be switching. It does have a 30 day moneyback gurantee.
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|Sorry, but i switched to Packet8. Saved me even more.
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|Switch to Geico and you could save 15% or more on car insurance...
...sorry, made me think of that.
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|I've been with Vonage for almost eight months now....I havenothing but good things to say about them and their service. I've been saving so much money since dumping Verizon and using my broadband connection. Perhaps I'll buy into some stock and see if it pays off. I think it will.
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|What is their symbol going to be and when are they going public?
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|The papers were just filed.
Patience, young padawan.
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|Vonage needs to revamp their customer service and business plan.
I've spent 5 hours on the phone trying to resolve a billing issue...with no results. I predict that if they don't fix their customer service issues, they will be history.
5 HOURS throught-out 3 days!
Vonages' business plan needs to be reviewed before buying their stock!!
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|"The company reported a net loss last quarter of nearly $190 million"
So, with a lot of money, they do more ads and then what? What is the # of customers that will turn vonage profitable?
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|Been waiting for a while now, Time to invest some $ in Vonage stocks =)
I think vonage is a great company and will perform well.
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|Definitely time to invest in Vonage, while they're losing lots of money and turning no profit. There stocks should be pretty low because of that, and once they get more customers the stocks should go back up.
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|what is vonage's symbol going to be and when are they suppose to go public?
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|The number of times you ask is not directly proportional to the time it will take for an answer to be forthcoming.
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|Could you explain that to my wife please ;-)
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|Certainly. She'll be dropping by shortly after you leave for work anyway. I'll "fill her in."
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