RSSVonage Loses CEO, Plans to Restructure
By Ed Oswald | Published April 12, 2007, 11:53 AM
As Vonage faces increasing uncertainty over its future, it now must look elsewhere for a new chief executive as Michael Snyder abruptly announced his resignation from the company.
No reasoning was given, and the company will immediately begin the search for his successor. In the meantime, Chairman Jeffrey Citron will serve as interim CEO until a replacement could be named.
The leadership crisis could not come at a worse time for the nation's largest VoIP operator. Vonage is embroiled in a patent infringement case with Verizon that is threatening to shut the company down.
A district court judge ruled that the company was barred from taking any new customers in a ruling last week, but Vonage was successful in getting the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals to grant a temporary stay while the company argues its case.
"Mike has made valuable contributions to the growth of our business and we will miss him," Citron said. "We thank him and wish him well in his future endeavors."
In addition to Synder's departure, Vonage also provided a preview of its first-quarter results, which aren't too positive. It did not provide any profit or loss numbers, but said it had added 166,000 customers during the quarter on revnues of $195 million.
Vonage will also pull back on marketing, cutting approximately $110 million from its budget this year. In addition, it will let go of approximately 10 percent of its workforce and stop hiring, expected to save $30 million.
"We remain focused on improving our competitive position in the marketplace," Citron added. Over the next month, he said the company will continue to look for other ways to cut costs, reviewing its entire strategy from "top to bottom."
I don't feel sorry for them, look into Lingo as an alternative. The coverage is better since Canada PR and western Europe are included, and they don't waste money on commercials or paying royalties for the Kill Bill soundtrack LOL.
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"The coverage is better since Canada PR and western Europe are included"
You might want to pay better attention to their commercials. Europe and Canada are included as well by Vonage.
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Lingo is an excellent alternative to Vonage, just as long as they don't get threatened to shut down like Vonage is right now. The best part about Lingo is that if you compare it to Vonage, you won't lose anything ... it just becomes better -- and for less money!
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Wonder how crazy puts are going on these bozos...
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It's sad this is happening. I bought vonage when I was stationed overseas and it worked well with my cable modem. It was very cost effective to pay only $25 a month along with the basic phone bill rather than pay $125 calling from my base phone back to the states. I hope vonage gets through this.
...woo hooo..woo hoo hooooo.....
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Save the $25 and use Skype.
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