Vonage raises $250 million more in IPO prelude: sale to Sprint Nextel next?

"This latest round of funding really validates what we'e doing, Vonage CEO Jeffrey Citron told the WSJ's Shawn Young. Citron added that Vonage initially sought $144 million, but interested investors - many of them from hedge funds whose names were not disclosed, pushed the amount upward. 

Counting the $250 million, Vonage has raised some $658 million in private funding so far. 

The article, available to WSJ Online subscribers at this link, cites unnamed sources as saying this would be the last private round of funding for Vonage before they file an Initial Public Offering to turn the stock public.  

I still think the ultimate end-game of a Vonage IPO will be to bulk up the company for a sale, ideally to an existing major broadband provider or telco that wants to add VoIP to their service portfolio. Such an addition would arm such an acquirer with a valuable building block to achieve triple-play and four-play services.

I keep goin back to SprintNextel- a sale possibility for Vonage that I was one of the first to raise, and that Shawn Young mentions in his piece.