April 18th, 2007
Source VERY close to Vonage: Sprint may take small stake
I'll name the source. He's Dan Connor, founder and administrator of the 41,000-Member Vonage Forum.
Although the Vonage Forum is totally independent of Vonage, it is important to realize that Dan has a close relationship with the company. The Forum has sent lots of new customers to Vonage over the last four years, which makes Dan plugged in.
In the wee small hours of this morning I was tip-toeing around the condo when I was drawn to my PC. My Outlook Express was in display mode, with a message from Dan about what he thinks will happen next with Vonage.
Pinged him back for permission to quote him, but then he decided to share his predictions with the world by posting this prognosis as a new Vonage Forum thread.
Take it away, Dan:
Vonage and Sprint could enter into a mutual agreement that will allow Vonage to use Sprints patents and give Vonage cash.
In exchange, Sprint gets Vonage’s IP traffic business and a minor ownership in Vonage.
This could develop into marketing synergies and reduce expenses for both companies; but leaving each company independent of the other while giving both companies a Triple play:
Mobile, Vonage VoIP, Sprint WiMax…It is a win/win for both and Wall Street, it plays right along with Citron's long term goals for Vonage and it is consistent with Vonage attorney O’Leary’s comments.
The more I think about it, the deal makes sense. Of course, what Vonage and SprintNextel do, doesn't always make sense.
But then again, Dan may well be on to something here.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
