I had the acct all set up to buy all 5K shares but decided against participating given the general mkt conditions -- boy am I glad... Hope you guys who bought in do better over time...good luck.
I wish I had the link for the VG article I recently read. -They are to raise over $500M in IPO, but they have approximately the same amount in debt that they've accumulated over the last 11 years. -They are not profitable now. -Voip providers are expected to drop prices. -The telcos have not rolled out big marketing campaigns yet. When they do, VG could lose market share. Why have the telcos not been more agressive? Because they make more $ on POTS. -Telcos have a marketing advantage. They can target their existing and past customers at a lower cost than VG. -Many people will be attracted to telcos that can bundle services (wireless, voip, internet, cable, etc.). VG will never be able to do this unless it partners with a telco. It seems it would be cheaper for the telcos to market to their existing customers rather than buy VG's. -The VG prospectus says that many investment banks may not want to buy shares or will discourage clients from buying shares in VG due to Jeff Citron, formerly of Datek, being involved with the company.
Vonageipo.com you have to wonder how many customers that were happy with the service and bought into the hype and loss their A$$ today will close out their service and never look back..... Est. Annual Vonage bill---1 year of service $250 100 shares @ 17.00 that close at 14.85----1 Day Loss= $215 The smile on my face waiting for MasterCard IPO=PRICELESS!!! I bet their are thousands that are pissed!!!! Probably most customers 1st experience with IPO allotments....and all/most think that every IPO goes higher on the 1st day unless the company is a dog. You gotta love this.....Thousands line up to buy VG who last I heard has something like 52 competitors, but they forget to buy AX (archipelago) before it changed to NYX which has 3 other real competitors in the US...
08:48 VG Vonage: Pali Research analyst on CNBC is negative on VG -- says they believe the stock is headed down toward $11.50, if not lower (13.02 )
Hi, I personally don't like Vonage (VG) stock. Not only that, I don't think VOIP as a primary business is feasible with the way the internet is today. I'm not saying Vonage is a bad company. I just feel it is a bad investment. Vonage can be a GREAT trade - just short it! I have a close friend who has Vonage service. He had nothing but problems when he first started his service. Repeated calls to Vonage support people were unable to rectify his problem. Eventually he decided to cancel and was hoping for a refund - which they promptly denied giving him. Ultimately, Vonage did try to resolve his problems by replacing all of his equipment. My friend is now able to actually use his VOIP service and it works flawlessly now. Vonage stated in their prospectus that they may never even turn a profit, largely due to heavy competition. I think competition, especially from free services such as Skype, are going to be the collapse of Vonage. Unless they can offer some kind of truly unique services or incentives. Skype may not be the best, but it's free, and with consumers free goes a long way. I work in IT and some of my close friend are VOIP enthusiasts. One of my friends has created his own personal VOIP system, for free, which has all of the same features as Vonage. If some techy can create a great VOIP service for free, what is going to keep Vonage customers from ditching Vonage and switching to another VOIP provider? I think one way for free VOIP providers to generate revenues is to place advertisements at the beginning of phone calls. Something like a 15 or 30 second advertisement for a local or national business can go a long way. Then the primary income would be from selling advertising... like Google... not from selling a monthly service and trying to keep your current customers. I'm wondering if anyone is using a free VOIP service such as Skype or one of the many others, and if you can offer a comparison between Vonage service and a free service. Is Vonage really that much better? Vonage may be better now, but what about in 1 year from now? The internet changes very rapidly and it doesn't look like Vonage will be able to compete in the future...
Potential bottom, long with tight stop. When everyone's crying and clamouring and cursing, you look for opportunity.
I use vonage both for phone and fax and have never had a problem with it. The price drew me in, and the service has kept me from switching. I thought about grabbing some shares through their customer offering, but I'm happy now that I didn't... Maybe if it drops a little more, but with how many people continue to support the big telcos and cable companies, even with their ever increasing prices, the future doesn't look too great for the small guys, even though they (Vonage, anyway) have a better product at a lower price.