How long until Vonage IPO + Google IPO update |
Andy Abramson speculates that Vonage is going to go IPO this year:
Reports are their growth is slowing, that costs are rising and that founder Jeffrey Citron has a bundle of his own cash in the venture.
I think this would be an excellent stock to get my hands on if the price was right. But I didn’t think the Google stock price was right and to date I’ve been wrong there.
And speaking of Google stock, the six month period for Google stock passed on February 15, 2005:
Google’s soaring stock withstood a major test Monday, rising modestly on the same day the door opened for insiders to sell 177 million shares, more than half of the company’s outstanding stock.
Current GOOG stock price as of this writing is $188.34. There were some articles last week about how they had one bad day, but otherwise this stock has held. Of particular note in the sfgate story is this:
Many Google insiders can now sell all their holdings, rather than just a portion. Reports to federal regulators show that many had in fact cashed in some of their shares before Monday.
With some 62% of Google stock now available for sale, those who are holding on don’t have to and the price of the stock could plummet if there was a mass sale by stockholders.
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also heard rumor that vonage can’t go public because jeff citron has had legal troubles with the SEC in the past
Comment by dean — March 4, 2005 @ 1:09 pm PST
After reading the prospectus for the IPO, it seems VERY risking; i.e. negative growth, deficits, Citron’s legal trouble etc. Also…Vonage doesn’t plan on paying dividends?!?!?! what the heck!
Is it worth the risk?
Comment by Matt Lupone — May 11, 2006 @ 8:04 pm PST
I have the same question. It seems that net2phone and deltathree, inc. are both trading well below their ipo price.. can anyone tell me more about Jeffrey Citron’s troubles? It is obvious they are trying to raise funding for advertising, buy with so many new potential providers in the market in the way of cable providers and isps, is that advertising going to pay off? IPOS are always exciting, I don’t know if I would hold this one for more than a week or so if I get in at all… any thoughts?
Comment by Will Dangerfield — May 16, 2006 @ 2:35 pm PST
I would stay away from Vonage. I have had a terrible experience with them as a customer and have logged a complaint with the FCC. I am a custom electronics installler. I wire hotels for TV, phone, data networks and security. I ordered their service and equipment to use in my small business. The service was lousy. I had little or no telephone for 3 and a half weeks. I spent nearly 12 hours on hold trying to reach someone in tech support or tinkering with the setting online to get my phone system working. When I went to cancel the service, I wanted to keep the phone number that I have had for 7 years, but they just cut off my service imediately. That action breaks the FCC rule governing the transfer of a previously held number. I had to repurchase the service again to try to get my phone number back. In the end I receiveed a “sorry” from some low level operator and a $12 credit. This is not a company that should be traded on any exchange. It should be out of business. Check out other customer stories like this, on just about any site that has a customer review area. CNET customer reviews it at 5.3. Vonage will tank if the product and service stays the same.
Comment by 928-636-0032 — May 17, 2006 @ 3:15 pm PST
I have used Vonage for a few years now for my business…their quality has definitely improved, but I am still not satisfied with the overall qaulity of calls. A lot of feedback on connections.. sometimes people can’t hear me and vice versa..in my business I can’t really afford that… I like the idea of VOIP, but does anyone know a service that works better? Thanks for the comments #4…I decided against participating in the IPO for some of the reasons you mentioned along with the troubles their CEO has had and the fact that there are a lot of bigger fish with the necessary infrastructure IE local lines that are getting involved in the market.
Comment by Will Dangerfield — May 17, 2006 @ 4:45 pm PST
I have Vonage for my home and for my business for over a year. I’ve transferred numbers, added numbers, moved, etc. I’m very happy with their service. Why is Vonage the largest VoIP provider? MARKETING!! What are they going to do with an additional 360 million? More MARKETING!! My phone company’s jingle is better than your phone company’s jingle, woo-hoo, woo-hoo-hoo!
Comment by Jeff Bass — May 17, 2006 @ 9:22 pm PST
I have used Vonage for personal use and found it to be very satisfactory. I plan on installing it for our business when we move to our new office. However, I would still like to speak with others like Mr. Dangerfield who have had some performance issues.
All in all I agree with Mr. Bass, however, when I mention VOIP to anyone (who knows what the heck it even is) all they know is Vonage. Marketing is strong. Maybe like the Google IPO the name itself will carry it even though technically it may not be a good buy.
Comment by Michael Ishida — May 24, 2006 @ 1:35 am PST
Well I guess being too busy may have saved me on this one. Like I have read above Vonage is the primary VoIP phone company anyone has heard of. I was really getting hyped about another quasi Goggle IPO and I did not want to miss out. Well my wife and I were going to a Children’s Int’l conf in Kansas City, Mo., and just ran out of time to jump through all the hoops they had set up for us to go through, so I decided to pass, it was simply too much trouble. Later I found out I had been fortunate not to have invested. Meanwhile, Google has given me trouble not too serious, but annoying problems. I discovered yet another problem I had not considered prior to the POTS to VoIP conversion, my Dish (Echostar)satellite connection requires a POTS connection they do show Caller-ID on the screen (if you have that service and a POTS) connection. Another one,I am still trying to figure an inexpensive way to deal with getting a copper line to the back of the satellite receiver. If anyone has suggestions or preferably has worked through this problem, I sure would appreciate how you did it. More importantly, the phone line help them try to detirmine what the problem is, they need that connection. The final problem is I bought a D-Link DL-102 Inet VoIP accelerator, with the hope that it might help the sound quality since it professes to use QoS, so far I have not noticed any difference. Again, anyone else tried this “solution”. It’s nearing time for me to take it back to the store since it isn’t doing anything “noticeable) for me. I hope someone with more experience can give some thoughts / suggestions on improving the quality. BTW Comcast is the IP/DNS provider and my network is small with a Netgear 612 “wired” router D-Link G-Bit Switch. Thanks,
Comment by 972-306-4600 — June 16, 2006 @ 8:24 pm PST
The previous comment listed should have said Vonage instead of Google approx 7 lines into the statement. It’s the last time I used Google in the paragraph…sorry…I’m sure it does not portend the future. - - - TomCo
Comment by TomCo — June 16, 2006 @ 8:33 pm PST