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Vonage Spared For Now
April 6, 2007
Vonage today secured a temporary stay from U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC. The stay enables Vonage to continue to sign up new customers until the Appellate court can hear Vonage's request for a permanent stay. The Court's ruling allows Vonage to continue to provide phone service to existing customers.
Earlier today the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. indicated it would enter an injunction against Vonage effective April 12, 2007 in connection with certain Verizon technology on which it was found to be infringing. The Court indicated that Vonage would be barred from acquiring new customers during its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. In response, Vonage filed for and received an emergency stay of the injunction from the Federal Circuit.
This is certainly one of the most fluid stories I have ever seen in the world of IP communications. It is just amazing how many twists and turns it has taken so far. Many people are hoping Vonage prevails in their David Versus Goliath fight with Verizon.
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Vonage Left for Dead?
April 6, 2007
While much of the world is celebrating Good Friday, at Vonage it could not be a worse day as a judge has issued an injunction against the leading pure-play VoIP firm barring it from signing up new customers. Lawyers from Vonage likened this action to cutting off oxygen to the company instead of putting a bullet in its head -- which refers to shutting Vonage down altogether. The future for Vonage looks mighty bleak as the dollars it spends on current ads are being wasted. Imagine the millions of dollars of ads that have run recently and those in the pipeline prompting people to call the company to sign up. What does the company now tell these potential customers? Please hold indefinitely?
In addition, the company’s churn rate will likely now increase.
I say this because many Vonage customers are calling and e-mailing me and asking what they should do.
I tell them to stay with Vonage as the judge will likely not shut down the service. I can’t imagine a scenario where millions will instantaneously lose their phone service. Imagine the lawsuits this could cause as people who need the phone for emergency reasons cannot get their calls through.
Vonage needs to work very quickly and win the appeal they are seeking or they are in real trouble. I believe Vonage will make it through this eventually but can it make it through and still be profitable is the real question.
To survive, they may have to pay Verizon more fines and even higher ongoing royalties and with existing razor thin margins this might be a nail in the coffin for the company.
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Cantata Gets New CEO
April 6, 2007
You may have seen the news about Cantata hiring a new CEO and could possibly be wondering why they would do such a thing. After all, Mark Zionts was involved in building Cantata into the company it is today with the combination of Brooktrout and Excel.
This is the story based on my conversation with Peter Vescuso the VP of Marketing at Cantata. It seems that Mark is acknowledged as the talented entrepreneur that took the company to where it is today. The goal now is to take Cantata to the next level.
The new CEO is Tim Murray and Tim is an AT&T veteran having worked as Executive Vice President and President of various divisions of the Telecom giant. He was there for over 2 decades in fact. It turns out Mark Zionts recruited Tim and is still going to be the Vice Chairman of the company and will be an advisor to Tim.
Generally when you take an executive from a large monopoly and put them in a fast moving business, it is not a great fit. Peter addressed this without me even having to say anything. He says I really need to meet Tim as he is a great fit for this position. The implication is he is not the typical Fortune class executive. He is very down to earth Peter promises.
Besides, Peter pointed out that Tim ran Riversoft which is about the size of Cantata and also was in charge of a hosted Biometrics company.
One obvious benefit of having Tim at the helm of the company could be the Rolodex Tim carries with him. Having years of experience at AT&T means he knows people who hold important positions at this large telco as well as others.
This allows him to better synchronize Cantata marketing, product development and sales top meet the needs of these large telcos.
My take on this news is that it could turn out to be good based on the information provided. Cantata has a slew of market-leading products and loyal partners and customers. As the market gets more competitive and the company has to move more quickly it makes sense to have someone with Tim’s experience at the helm.
As long as Tim can keep the company innovating and can work the relationships he has, Cantata can see a big boost in its service provider business.
If this can be done while ensuring the enterprise side of the house still does well, the company could become stronger than ever.
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Unified Communications Magazine
April 6, 2007
In case you missed my past blog entries regarding SIP Magazine becoming Unified Communications Magazine, consider it official… The change has begun and we are working on the look and feel of this new publication. It should be different than just about anything you have ever seem before in the magazine world.
I am interested in your feedback when the first issue is delivered in July of this year. In the mean time, here is a press release about the details of this new, exciting and timely publication.
You can subscribe here.
Oh and by the way, the website which is now constructed is at www.uc-mag.com.
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