Vonage Update - More Woes

Watching the soccer match yesterday between England and Ecuador, sponsored by Vonage, brought to mind the continuous struggle that Vonage is having. For a company that was spunky, innovative and well financed, a combination of foul-ups and bad luck may have put this otherwise well-managed company on the road to ruin. The most recent issue of TPP covered this in a feature article.

Lastest Bad News:

1. Now Verizon has filed a patent infringement suit against Vonage. I am not sure if this is a valid action or not, but the legal costs, and the protracted cloud of uncertainty this will cast over Vonage cannot help it at all. This in addition to the other patent infringement suit against Vonage by Sprint. This is the "we invented VoIP, but not really" patent, covered in a previous blog,
   
2. The stock has lost almost half of its IPO value of $17, closing at $8.75 on Friday, June 23. In addition, the SEC has confirmed that it is investigating some suspecious short selling of the stock.
3. The FCC has ruled that VoIP carriers, like Vonage, must pay access fees.
   

If the lessons of history on companies with this kind of woe just post-IPO, Vonage could end up on the scrap heap of telecom history. It would be a real shame if the first serious national competitor to telecom and cable companies were to crash and burn.