January 9th, 2007
Vonage investors greet EarthLink deal with figurative yawn
When a company makes what it believes is a major announcement (ever heard of a minor announcement?) it is often wise to check and see how that announcement has effected the stock price.
Investors are attuned to this stuff- major new alliances, product rollouts, etc. If they think it is important, they'll likely give you a bounce.
So OK, as I reported yesterday morning Vonage has announced an alliance with EarthLink in which Vonage would re-sell EarthLink Wi-Fi services in markets where EarthLink is the municipal Wi-Fi partner.
Yesterday I wrote that this is a first step, and a baby first step at that. More widespread geography and service bundles are needed to make Vonage competititve in the bundling game with the broadband monopolists.
And guess what. Investors seem to agree. Yesterday Vonage stock closed up 7 cents for the day. Hardly a ripple. And at the time of this post, Vonage stock is down a penny.
Woo-Hoo.
Doesn't sound like the Vonage investor community- the ones with the money on the line- are all that excited about the EarthLink deal.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
