Vonage

Vonage Holdings Corp.

Type	Public (NYSE: VG) NASDAQ: VG
Industry	Communications services
Founded	Edison, New Jersey, U.S. (January 2001)
Headquarters	Holmdel Township, New Jersey, U.S.
Key people	Marc P. Lefar; CEO Barry Rowan; CFO Louis Mamakos; CTO
Products	Phone over Internet (VOIP) adapter and service subscription
Revenue	US$885 million (2010)
Net income	US$47 million (2010)
Employees	1600+ worldwide (06/2008)
Website	www.vonage.com

Vonage logo until 2006

Vonage NYSE: VG ( /ˈvɑːnɪdʒ/) is one of the largest VoIP providers and an industry pioneer. The publicly held company is a provider of low-cost communications services connecting individuals through broadband devices worldwide. Its name is a play on their motto "Voice-Over-Net-AGE."

Founded in Edison, New Jersey, Vonage is now located in Holmdel Township, New Jersey. The company first offered subscription service throughout the United States, then expanded into Canada in 2004 and the United Kingdom in 2005. As of July 2011, Vonage held nearly 2.4 million subscriber lines and now offers mobile applications globally.

History

Early: 1999-2000

Jeff Pulver, noted VoIP proponent and owner of the successful VON conferences, incubated Vonage, then called Min-X.com, at his offices in Melville, New York between December 1999 and December 2000. Based on his experience at Cantor Fitzgerald, Pulver developed a market where IP Telephony minutes and capacity could be traded in both spot and futures contracts. By the summer of 2000, Min-X.com had about six employees who were either technologists or former bond or stock traders.

Jeffrey Citron, former CEO and majority shareholder at Datek Online, was the first major investor in Min-X/Vonage. In October 2000, Citron made an initial investment of $1 million.

In December 2000, Citron and Carlos Bhola, an investment banker, unveiled a new name for entity; "Vonage.” The name borrows Pulver's "VON" acronym for "Voice on the Net" and the temporal meaning of the word "age," combining to form "Vonage,” heralding the start of a new era for consumer communications services (the age of VON). In January 2001, the newly incorporated Vonage moved to Edison, NJ.

The 30 person start-up team worked out of an old testing facility building located in an industrial part of Edison developing ways to shake up the calling industry. With card tables and folding chairs as office furniture, Vonage became one of the first companies to bring VoIP to consumers. In 2002, the management team elected to enter the direct to residential and business phone service markets under Vonage Direct. Growing at an exponential rate in late 2002 and into 2003, Vonage literally knocked down wall after wall of its office space to expand. Throughout its expansion, the team celebrated each sale by ringing a bell, something the Company still does today.

Initial public offering

In operation since 2001, Vonage went public on May 24, 2006 at a price of $17.00 per share, and dropped 23.5% to close at $13.00 the next day.

In the period before the initial public offering (IPO), Vonage solicited its existing customer base with an offer to buy shares of the IPO. The price fell 12.7% in one day to close at $14.85 on the New York Stock Exchange, the worst trading day for any IPO in 2006 up to that point.

As a result, by the time customers learned that they had gotten shares, Vonage's share price had fallen. FINRA said the customers were required to pay the higher $17 per share IPO price, and suffered losses when they later sold the shares.

The IPO raised $531 million for the company. Vonage's post-IPO handling of individual pre-IPO investors resulted in a class-action lawsuit.

As of 2009, Vonage announced that an agreement had been reached to settle with IPO investors. The settlement included a release and dismissal of all stockholder claims against Vonage and its individual directors and officers who were named as defendants. As a result, the company did not incur additional litigation settlement costs other than nominal administrative fees and expenses.

The firms underwriting the IPO, Citigroup, UBS, and Deutsche Bank, were fined and ordered to reimburse customers for "failure to adequately supervise communications" with investors. NYSE regulators went so far as to investigate possible short-selling.

Citigroup was fined $175,000 and ordered to pay up to $250,000 in restitution to 284 potentially eligible customers. UBS was fined $150,000and ordered to pay up to $118,000 to 126 potential customers. Deutsche Bank was fined $100,000 and ordered to pay up to $52,000 to 59 potential customers.

In the second quarter of 2010, with a change in management and improved sales, the Company’s stock price increased in the second quarter of 2010., and in June 2010, Vonage made a comeback, topping the Biggest Percentage Price Gainers list of stocks on the NYSE. In 2011, the Company reported record high net income of $22 million, among other positive financial reports.

Restructuring efforts

In 2006, in preparation for Vonage's IPO, Michael Snyder, former president of ADT Security Services replaced Vonage co-founder Jeffrey A. Citron as CEO. In 2007, in a restructuring effort to reduce ongoing net losses in the face of double-digit stock price slips and patent infringement issues, Snyder resigned, and Citron returned as Interim CEO. The company announced plans for 10% (180) layoffs, as it secured $215 million in financing.

In 2008, with Vonage stock at $1.42, Citron stepped aside as Marc Lefar, former CMO of Cingular Wireless, became CEO. Lefar was chosen based on his performance in multiplying customer base and reducing churn rate. Citron continued as board Chairman. On July 9, 2009, Vonage stock dipped to $0.31, but an August price surge associated with announcements of the Vonage World plan and a portable phone app raised the stock to between $1 and $2 (April 2010.)

As part of its restructuring effort in 2010, Vonage paid off $41 million of its debt at par, negotiated the release of more than $40 million in cash from vendors and announced a comprehensive refinancing. The refinancing resulted in a $200 million, pre-payable term loan with interest rates at 9.75%. While this was an enormous improvement, Vonage committed to driving further interest rate savings through a two-part strategy of paying down the existing debt ahead of schedule and seeking improved financing terms based on sustained financial performance.

In March 2011, Vonage began aggressively prepaying the $200 million loan and by June 2011 had prepaid $70 million, reducing its term loan balance to $130 million, the level Vonage had targeted to achieve by year-end 2011.

Patent infringement

On June 19, 2006, Verizon filed a lawsuit charging that Vonage infringed on five of Verizon's patents related to its VoIP service. The patents describe technology for completing phone calls between VoIP users and people using phones on the traditional public switched network, authenticating VoIP callers, validating VoIP callers' accounts, fraud protection, providing enhanced features, using Wi-Fi handsets with VoIP services, and monitoring VoIP caller usage.

On March 8, 2007 a jury found Vonage guilty of infringing three patents held by Verizon, and not guilty of infringing two other patents. The jury ordered Vonage to pay US$58 million, and a royalty rate of 5.5% of every sale to a Vonage customer, back to Verizon. Subsequent to this jury award, there were a series of appeals and intermediate stays on payment. Vonage was punitively ordered by the court to stop signing up new customers; this was reversed on appeal three weeks later. On November 19, 2007 Vonage agreed to pay ~$120 million in damages to Verizon.

The Verizon suit was the first but not the only patent lawsuit successfully prosecuted against Vonage. By December 26, 2007, Vonage was ordered to pay $80 million to Sprint Nextel and $39 million to AT&T. Another lawsuit with Nortel resulted in no monetary damages.

Service

Products

Vonage offers a variety of calling plans - domestic, international and small business plans - with more than 25 features, including visual voicemail, 411 calling, caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, do not disturb, and many others.

In 2009, Vonage introduced its most popular plan, Vonage World calling plan, with "unlimited international calling to more than 60 countries" for a flat monthly rate. Vonage began offering smartphone applications in October 2009. The Vonage Mobile app provided international calling via Wi-Fi and cellular networks, and Vonage promoted theapp as offering "50% savings" over competitive rates. The free app works on devices running Android, BlackBerry, and iOS (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch). A month later, the Vonage World Mobile plan was introduced, with Vonage World unlimited calling features for a fixed monthly charge, and included a discount to home service users.

Introduced in August 2010, the free Vonage Mobile application for Facebook provides "free one-touch mobile-to-mobile calls to Facebook friends who also have the application" for iPhone/iPad, iPod touch and Android devices, operating over Wi-Fi (free) and 3G/4G networks (uses data minutes).

In April 2011, Vonage introduced World Premium Unlimited plan, expanding on its popular World calling plan from 60 to 80 countries, including unlimited calling to mobiles in 42 countries.

Vonage announced a new service offering in July 2011, Vonage Extensions™, allowing customers to extend their Vonage service to an additional phone line, mobile or landline, for no additional cost. In addition to the first free extensions, customers may add a second extension for $4.99 per month. As of October 2011, Vonage customers may download the free Vonage Extensions™ mobile app available on iPhone® and Android™ devices. This move was one of several announcements in 2011 launching Vonage in the mobile VoIP space.

Less than a week after the announcement of Vonage Extensions™, Vonage released a free downloadable mobile application, Time to Call™, offering 15-minute calls to more than 190 countries starting at $0.99 per call. Time to Call™ is available for iPhone®, iPod touch® and iPad®.

Requirements

In order to use Vonage service, customers need a Broadband Ethernet connection such as Cable or DSL through an Internet Service Provider (ISP), a billing and shipping address in the U.S. or Puerto Rico, a Vonage phone adapter (called a Vonage Box ™), and any touchtone phone (either corded or cordless).

Telephone number availability

Subscribers are able to choose a number in the country of the service they subscribe to for their primary line, in an area code of their choice. Subscribers can obtain additional "virtual numbers" for a monthly fee. Vonage also offers virtual numbers in Mexico, Canada and Europe. While the company supports porting a U.S. telephone number via the FCC's local number portability (LNP), not every phone number is available in every area code. Additionally, customers can transfer an existing number to Vonage, which can take up to 7 to 10 business days from the time the customer completes the Number Transfer Authorization (NTA).

Residents of the U.S., Canada, and the UK may subscribe to Vonage by credit card from their respective country, but the Vonage Box™ can be connected to the Internet anywhere.

Emergency calls

Vonage was the first company to offer 911 calling from a VoIP platform in 2003. subscribers must activate their 911 calling feature by registering their address with the company. Customers are responsible for maintaining their 911 location information at all times.

If a customer dials 911 before the 911 verification is completed, the call will usually be routed to a national 911 call center where basic information must be given (name, location, nature of emergency, etc.), after which the call is transferred to a local public service answering point, like a local Police Department.

Service cancellation

To cancel service, Vonage requires that customers call a toll-free number.

Quality of service and equipment compatibility

VoIP service relies upon consistent broadband-ISP uptime and VoIP-equipment compatibility with the ISP's modem. Though VoIP is optimized for voice, some fax equipment can be operated over VoIP, but compatibility of monitored alarm systems and other devices is less certain. Vonage offers "specially commissioned" Fax Line service. Vonage recommends customers keep a basic traditional landline dedicated to their home alarm system and use Vonage for the rest of their calling needs.

External links

• Official website (Mobile)