Why did SunRocket talk to Vonage more than a month BEFORE they went under?

Last Thursday, I reported that SunRocket LLC,, the entity that is liquidating former VoIP provider SunRocket, is suing Vonage over what the entity believes is the improper way Vonage acquired some names of former SunRocket customers.

To recap, the suit says that in early June, "SunRocket and Vonage entered into a confidentiality agreement for the purpose of allowing Vonage to conduct due diligence for potentially entering into a business transaction, such as the acquisition of SunRocket or its assets by Vonage."

But wait a minute. SunRocket officially announced its closure on July 16.

The question of why SunRocket would be having these sort of discussions more than a month before they closed up shop is worthy enough to be asked.

One reader of this blog is wondering the same thing. He's emailed me to ask:

Doesn't this imply--well, pretty much acknowledge that SunRocket in fact KNEW that they were not long for this world, had plenty of time to warn their customer, yet did nothing--just closed up shop and left 200,000 subscribers stranded.  And THEY'RE suing???

I guess a benevolent, benefit-of-the-doubt reading of these actions and their timelines might evoke the  notion that in their last weeks, SunRocket was casting about for a re$cue. On a parallel track, they were approaching Vonage as a type of fall-back strategy should funding to keep SunRocket alive would not be forthcoming.

The funding did not materialize, and SunRocket dematerialized.

As to the reader's wish that SunRocket warn customers it was "not long for this world," my read is that as a privately held company, SunRocket was under no legal or even moral mandate to do so.

Keyword: was.