Vonage, Now Half The Price
Following close on the heels of the news that Verizon is suing Vonage for some sort of patent infringement, upstart VoIP Service Providers declined about $1.09 a share today, down to about $8.51 a share.
Which means, those who paid $17 a share for the IPO, is now down 50%. It just keeps getting uglier…. doesn’t it! (Our poll results are here. 62% predicted that the stock was going to go below $10 a share. )
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Mr Om, which stock ticker app do you use in the screengrab?
That’s a Mac Dashboard widget.
As a customer, I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t find another service. How much longer will Vonage be around?!
Erik: Why would the future of a company prevent you from doing business with them? That doesn’t make any sense. If they go down, switch the service. If they stay up, continue to use them as long as you enjoy their service. Switching services based on bad news is idiotic.
Tom J:
It’s not idiotic if you rely on them for uninterrupted service.
-Andrew
Andrew Fife:
I’m inclined to agree with you, but they haven’t announced to shut down yet. Microsoft stock plumped 14 or so percent, does that mean you are going to stop using their software because someday they might shut down and all Microsoft based applications will be left unsupported?
If Erik doesn’t like the service, I can understand making the switch. But making assumptions based on what might happen in the near future that no one knows about other than the executives at Vonage is immature.
I believe that Verizon may have inherited some patents from the MCI side of the business. MCI has been selling voip to business customers for ages and it wont surprise me at all if they have quite a few patents in their kitty.
Tom, Microsoft may be down, but they still have $40 or so billion in cash last time I checked.
Partick Mullen:
Yes, you are correct, but I was just presenting that as an example. :) All I’m saying is cancelling service based on company’s financial performance doesn’t make sense. Now if you are not enjoying the service, feel free to get out, but if you are enjoying them, why pull the plug now? When (If) they go down, you won’t have a choice, but to cancel anyways.
it’s a coin toss which is funnier to me:
VG–trading $8.54 today,
those poor investors. i wonder which is worse: being the sucka that paid $17 at the IPO, or the idiot who thinks $8 level stock is a value scoop worth buying.
–if you love the VG service/product–just enjoy it, there’s no need to run hand-in-hand with the stock through the death gauntlet.
–if you have any interest in really playing the stock: trade options not stock. options became available June 1, initally listing the 10-12.5-15 strikes. I asked an exchange specialist why they didn’t have 5 or 7.5 strikes. he grumbled–confident that any day, VG would add the 20 and 25 strikes.
so, only 11 trade days later–the 5 and 7.5 strikes opened.
customers bot july 5 and 7.5 puts all day. there is almost no open interest on the july 10c side.
can things get worse for VG? sure.
maybe the 2.5 puts will be available soon..