ACN Inc.

For other uses, see ACN (disambiguation).

ACN, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	Incorporated 1992
Headquarters	Concord, North Carolina, USA
Key people	Charles Barker, CEO Robert Stevanovski, Chairman Gregory Provenzano, President Anthony Cupisz, VP Michael Cupisz, VP
Revenue	US$ 550 million (2010)
Employees	1300 (2010)
Website	www.acninc.com

ACN, Inc. is a Multi-level marketing (MLM) company that provides telecommunications, television, energy, and other services and also provides Independent Business Owners (IBOs) an opportunity to form a home-based business. Based in Concord, North Carolina, USA, ACN began operations in the U.S in 1993 as American Communications Network. It extended operations to Europe in 1999 and to Asia-Pacific in 2004, and now operates in 23 countries, on 4 continents. As a reflection of its international operations, it changed its name to just the initial letters ACN.^{[citation needed]} The company is a member of the Direct Selling Associations in North America and Europe. In the United States, ACN is an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau, where it currently has an A rating. In 2010, ACN was placed #21 on Direct Selling News' Global 100 list of the top 100 direct selling companies worldwide based on its revenue.

Company structure

Based in Concord, North Carolina, United States, ACN has international expansion offices located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Sydney, Australia; Åmål, Sweden; Wrocław, Poland; and Seoul, South Korea. The company relies on independent representatives working for residual commissions and bonuses to acquire customers for the products it offers and to recruit additional independent representatives.

History

In 1992, Robert Stevanovski, Greg Provenzano, J.D. Sullivan and twin brothers Tony and Mike Cupisz, founded the American Communications Network, Inc. ACN opened for business in January, 1993 with twenty initial "independent representatives". In its first year it achieved revenues of two million dollars. ACN's initial business was as a marketing arm for a long-distance reseller called LCI Communications. This relationship lasted for five years until LCI was acquired by Qwest Communications. By 1998, ACN was listed in Inc. Magazine's Inc. 500 list as No. 22 in this annual list of the 500 fastest growing private companies in America, with an annual revenue of $98.1 million.

Formerly ACN, through the subsidiaries ACN Energy and ACN Utility Services, operated as a gas and electricity retailer. ACN's energy assets were acquired by Commerce Energy Group in 2006.

Since 2006, ACN has been endorsed by multi-billionaire and Apprentice executive producer, Donald J. Trump. He has gone on to speak at several ACN International Training Events at which he has praised the company's founders, business model and video phone.

In 2008, ACN moved its headquarters from Farmington Hills, Michigan to Concord, North Carolina.

On December 13, 2008, ACN committed to purchase in excess of $50 million dollars worth of videophone equipment from WorldGate Communications (stock symbol WGAT). As part of the agreement, ACN, through its investment proxy WGI Investors, purchased all outstanding debentures of WorldGate's senior secured creditor, YA Global Investments, LP (f/k/a Cornell Capital Partners, LP) and acquired a controlling interest (63% of its common stock) in WorldGate, among other conditions. Under the proposed action ACN acquired the right to name four of the seven members of WorldGates's board of directors.

In September 2010, ACN officially launched operations in South Korea and opened an office in Seoul.

Services

ACN offers landline telephone service (local and long distance), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), including video phone service, high-speed internet, satellite television, cellular phone, and home security services, primarily to consumers, and secondarily to small businesses. Beginning in 2011, ACN also began offering an ACN-branded international calling smartphone app available for iPhone, Android and Symbian, reselling WiMAX wireless Internet, and technical support service for personal and business computers, as well as getting back into the energy reselling market.

With variations depending upon the country of operation, provision of ACN's services follows three models:

1. The reselling of ACN-branded services ultimately originating in an incumbent provider. This is exemplified by local and long-distance telephone, where ACN buys local telephone service from an incumbent provider such as Qwest or AT&T, and bills customers in its own name. This model was made possible by telephone industry deregulation beginning in 1996; prior to this, ACN was involved solely in reselling long-distance telephone service. It was the expansion of deregulation internationally that made it possible for ACN to begin to operate outside the United States.
2. Acting as a sales agent for the actual service provider, where an ACN representative sells the service, but order fulfillment, billing, and servicing is performed by the branded provider. ACN resells wireless plans from Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile USA, satellite television providers DirecTV and Dish Network, and the largest home security provider, ADT. ACN now also resells energy (electricity and natural gas) for Planet Energy, in New York City, New York.
3. The selling of ACN-branded and provided services. These are Voice over Internet Protocol and the Iris 5000 Videophone, in which ACN resells consumer equipment manufactured to their specifications, but owns and maintains its own network of servers. Starting in January 2011, ACN has also added an ACN-branded computer technical support service to its service offerings.

Criticism

ACN requires a $499 startup fee to join their telecommunications sales team which the company says is for overhead and representative support. The emphasis is on providing telecommunications products the company sells, as well as recruiting new representatives by sharing the opportunity. Phil Shuman of Fox News 11 in Los Angeles claimed in an investigative news report that ACN is a company that has left a trail of people claiming they were misled about money making opportunities.

Critics of ACN have complained that few ACN representatives make a profit; the opposing viewpoint being that this is a claim that can be made about virtually all MLM-based businesses, and may be an expected result of recruiting in the general population among persons with little or no business training or experience.^{[citation needed]} The chairman of ACN's Legal Advisory Committee, Bob Stephan, who served as Attorney General of the state of Kansas for 16 years, acknowledged in an interview in a local Fox news investigative report that the majority of representatives probably do not make money, but defended ACN by declaring that it is simply offering business opportunities and that it complies with multilevel marketing laws. In addition, no money is earned at ACN unless customers are acquired. ACN's own representative recruiting materials bear the warning that "[n]ot all ACN Independent Representatives make a profit and no one can be guaranteed success as an ACN Independent Representative."

Legal cases

ACN has been subjected to numerous legal allegations regarding it's MLM business operation.

In August, 2010 the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Monica Lindeen (D) announced the issuance of a Cease and Desist Order and Notice of Proposed Agency Action against ACN, Inc. and several of its founders for allegedly operating a "pyramid scheme." The Commissioner also cited the low average earnings of ACN reps based in Montana. Allegedly, in 2008 ACN recruited 91 Montana participants who "paid approximately $61,741.69 to be a part of the program", averaging $678 each. All but two lost money, with one making $696 and the other making $700. In 2009 "over 300" Montana participants joined ACN and paid about $234,800, averaging about $775 each. According to the Commissioner's Office ACN's records show $896.86 was paid out to these participants, in total. The case allegations were dismissed by the Federal Court after appeal from ACN.

On three separate occasions, in Canada in 2002, Australia in 2004, and 2010 in Montana in the United States, ACN was alleged to be operating an illegal pyramid scheme. In each of these three cases the allegations were found upon appeal or further investigation to be unsubstantiated.^{[citation needed]}

On June 13, 2002, ACN settled a case with the Bureau of Consumer Services in Pennsylvania. The exact details of the settlement are under court seal. However, the suit alleged that approximately 135 informal complaints were filed with the Bureau of Consumer Services (BCS) between June 2000 and November 2001. According to the representations made in the informal complaints, 22 consumers alleged that ACN Energy switched their generation service without authorization (a process known as "slamming"), 81 instances of overcharging ("cramming") were alleged, and 32 complaints with allegations of various violations of the Commission's regulations contained in Chapter 54, 56, and 57 of Title 52 of the Pennsylvania Code.

SAS ACN Communications France (ACN France) was found guilty of false or misleading advertising by the Tribunal de Grande Instance [ District Court ] of Paris on March 19, 2007. ACN France was ordered by the court to pay a sum of €15,000 .

External links

• ACN, Inc. Company Website
• ACN, Inc. Legal Advisory Committee
• ACN, Inc. Products and Services
• company information from Hoover's
• Canadian Court Case 2002
• [2]
• [3]