They need to decentralize other wise they will crash and burn just like IBM in the 80s…

But does the company serve as a good role model for market disruptors? Is VG a good investment now that the stock has come off?

We graded Vonage using a Disruption Scorecard and it fell short, earning a ‘C’ grade. Why?

VG fails by these measures:
Vonage is not creating a new market;
Vonage business model looks like high-growth now, worry about profits later (we’ve all seen that during the dotcom bubble);
Vonage service doesn’t stand on its own in terms of unique attributes;

Should businesses emulate Vonage’s business model? Is it a good investment?

Both answers look like ‘No.’

Check out the complete Disruption Scorecard at http://www.OnDisruption.com

A codec suitable for reliable fax receipt – no voip provider I am aware of offers this. As a smb consultant, I have had to steer clients away from vonage for fax. Yes – sometimes it works flawlessly, but sometimes – not so much.

Many small biz entities still live or die via the fax machine.

This could be bundled into the current small biz packages Vonage offers which would give them a key advantage, while at the same time encouraging exisiting small biz customers who are using the consumer package to move up to the higher arpu bundle.

All-you-can-eat minutes to select countries as a value added package.

Cellular service moving toward commodity pricing will eat into Vonage’s customer base unless/until they can start offering a voip/cell hybrid package.

They’re going to crash and burn. The cable companies will drop their prices for a few years and crush them. They’ll settle at $6 and eventually run out of money.

Plus that whole anti-geek ad campaign is offensive.

i think you make a good point. so the numbers we are talking about might actually be lower. let me get back to you on that.

Andy comments “The public offering was largely a means for many of the early round investors to cash out and gain some sense of liquidity.”

i haven’t read the docs, but usually insiders are locked for 3 to 6 months (unless they were side sellers, which means Vonage” recieved less then the advertized cash. Depending on how quickly this rock falls to earth the insiders aren’t going to see a lot liquity unless there are a lot of very ignorant buyers to hold the price up

I guess I was lucky because the IPO was only open to US citizens and hence I could not apply.

After my first year with Vonage (this May) I switched to Broadvoice as I can now call a total of 21 countries for free by paying 5 dollars less than Vonage.

It took me almost 3 days trying to get Customer Service to answer the phone to cancel my Vonage account! And they do not work on weekends.

To be fair, I never had any service issues with Vonage. Some of my friend’s have already switched to Sun Rocket from Vonage. However, many do not want to switch yet. Broadvoice and Sipphone ATA works well for me.

Sanjay

I’m a customer and was eligible for the IPO shares, but passed.

Idea for next poll (s)

Will Ebay and Yahoo merge? Never ;Within 6 months; 6-18 mos.; 18 mos.

Will GOOG market cap outperform combined YHOO EBAY market cap over next 12 mos?

you have a good point, but it would make the poll too much. but it is a good idea. perhaps we can do this the next time around, when their earnings come out. still this does give everyone an idea as to what the current thinking is. clearly, the poll takers are saying its going to be range bound between $10-and-$5. why not the $10-to-$17, well, the stock is down to almost $13. lets see how it does tomorrow.