Vonageland. You know, that roller coaster of a company that is 
now on that last drop before you crazy investors and customers get off the ride.
Vonageland, where paying $300+ to sign up customers just to play the share game to prop up a stock that a carnival strong man couldn't keep in the air.
Vonageland, where after those customers decide to leave from that crappy company they tell the investor community that they fixed their churn and then in small print, only read by analysts, explain that the fix was due to allowing non-paying customers to stay on the system longer.
Vonageland where PT Barnum like exaggerations of losses in courtrooms appear to be monumental victories for this company conjuring up visions of Barnum hoaxing people into believing he actually had George Washington's nanny on display.
Vonageland where they turn customers into investors only to have their stock get pummeled and in the process, lining the pockets of brokers, financial advisors, and of course the founders and CXOs of the company. At least for all of Barnum's hoaxes he believed deep down he was entertaining people; there is nothing entertaining about losing your shirt on a stock.
Well folks, it looks like Vonage is finished, or nearing the end. As this NY Times article explains Vonage was given a death sentence and then a temporary reprieve from the gallows prompting them to finally get real with their press releases by announcing that Vonage receives temporary stay in Verizon patent litigation, continues to sell service. I guess even their PR department can see the end because they didn't issue a classic Vomit release like "We Won and Continue to Win in Court!!!" You know, it is never a good sign when you see a press release saying that you can temporarily add new customers.
Anyway, what gets me is at the end of the article there is this mystifying quote from Gigi Sohn a lawyer with Public Knowledge a firm that clearly doesn't have much when it allows this quote to get out from Ms. Sohn "Any time a company is told they can’t add new customers it’s pretty serious,” Ms. Sohn said. “I’m not sure the judge fully understands what this could do to a relatively small company like Vonage.”
Ms. Sohn said Verizon was unfairly using its patents as a competitive weapon. “I think Verizon is pulling out all the stops to put Vonage out of business,” she said.
You know what? I think the Judge knows that when a small company steals patents and misleads investors and customers regarding their product, he knows exactly what it can do. It will put them out of business which is where they belong.
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
PS: LA Times has an article on Vonageland too...
**********UPDATE*************
It seems I spoke (really wrote) too soon and the Vonageland PR writers were back to their usual stunts. From today's press release we get this award winning fiction from their PR team: "Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG), a leading provider of broadband telephone service, today stated that it views the Court of Appeals' granting of a temporary stay on Friday allowing Vonage to continue to add customers as the first step toward resolving this matter in Vonage's favor. The stay will remain effective while the Appellate Court considers making the stay permanent."
Well, I guess nobody else believed them because their stock is being pummeled by 10% today. At 3:52PM ET: 3.02 
0.35 (10.39%)
Comments