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I'll say it again: Vonage will go private

By | March 27, 2007, 6:22am PDT

Summary: Fellow blogger Andy Abramson thinks that with the decline in the price of Vonage stock as a result of the federal court ruling denying Vonage the use of patented Verizon technology, the most advisable route is a sale. Andy mentions Verizon as a possible acquirer, but adds that there could be "another suitor who has [...]

Fellow blogger Andy Abramson thinks that with the decline in the price of Vonage stock as a result of the federal court ruling denying Vonage the use of patented Verizon technology, the most advisable route is a sale.

Andy mentions Verizon as a possible acquirer, but adds that there could be "another suitor who has the technology and would be desiring the customer base out there."

As I have said before, SprintNextel would be an advisable suitor- one that would conform to Andy's vision of having the tech and wanting the customer base.

My growing problem with SprintNextel, however, stems from the fact that a year and a half after the SprintNextel merger, they are still having trouble uniting the two companies' billing systems and even their identities. Imagine piling on Vonage to that trainwreck in the making.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Vonage will see a stock buyback, and quite likely, a privatization funded largely by investment banks and private equity. Why? Precadent. I've seen companies with higher opinions of themselves than public investors hold, take that route. 

 

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Russell Shaw

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?page_id=1879

Biography

Russell Shaw

Russell Shaw passed away in March 2008. He was an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. A specialist in open source architectures and strategies, Microsoft applications, wireless networking, and multimedia content creation, Russell covered these fields regularly for several IT, business and consumer publications, including Investor's Business Daily and the syndicated IT news site NewsFactor.com.

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Vonage
gdude@... 28th Mar 2007
Guys hate to bust your bubble...Correct me if i'm wrong but wouldn't this be a great buy for M$?
0 Votes
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Vonage has a gross profit of $112 a year per customer - that is $250 million a year! All they need to do is stop spending $1m a day on advertising, fix up their patent issues and they have it made. if you want to know where I got that figure from, see my calculations at http://flatplanetphone.com/wordpress/?p=15
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Not a chance
irieblue 27th Mar 2007
Vo-Nage the dog, has horrible debt, not private equity firm will ever think that's a
good deal. Who wants to take on such a huge debt? There are better deals to be had.
Nothing here, move on now...
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Vonage
gdude@... 28th Mar 2007
Guys hate to bust your bubble...Correct me if i'm wrong but wouldn't this be a great buy for M$?

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