Considering not paying for your shares - read this first

Posts: 476 · Last edited by blakadher on Wed May 31, 2006 7:56 pm; edited 1 time in total

Before you decide not to pay, you may want to consider this. Someone got this off the DJ wire and posted it to the message boards on finance.yahoo.com:

5:36P (DJ) *WSJ: Vonage Says Customers Obligated On IPO Shares Story 10228 =WSJ: Vonage: Customers Bound By Promises To Buy IPO Shrs By Shawn Young Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

As its shares continued to sink following its initial public offering last week, Vonage Holdings Corp. (VG) said it plans to hold investors who promised to buy IPO shares to their pledges.

Some investors have threatened to withhold payment for IPO shares they had promised to buy through an unusual program that allowed Vonage customers to participate in the IPO.

Shares of Vonage, which offers Internet-based phone service, immediately plunged from the $17 IPO price, and they closed Wednesday at $12.02 in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Vonage is obligated to pay its underwriters if customers who agreed to buy IPO shares default.

A Vonage spokeswoman said Wednesday the company will pursue payment from customers who renege on their agreements.
"If they don't pay, we will reserve our right to pursue payment," said Brooke Schulz. She added that speculation that the company intends to buy shares back from disappointed investors are false. "They are taking a risk if they choose not to pay," she said.

She declined to comment on how the company might pursue those who refuse to pay or on how many customers have refused to pay. Many customers already have paid and many more intend to, according to postings they have entered on the Web site vonage-forum.com" target="_blank">www.vonage-forum.com

The company, based in Holmdel, N.J., set aside about 4 million shares at the $17 IPO price for customers, and a person familiar with the matter said 9,000 to 10,000 customers signed up to buy shares. The IPO raised about $531 million for Vonage, which is growing rapidly but is not profitable.

Posts: 17 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 23, 2006 Posts: 17

blakadher wrote:

Experts have said it isn't clear that Vonage would have the legal standing to pursue customers who defaulted on agreements with banks to buy shares

Posts: 192 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Oct 08, 2004 Posts: 192

And this just in via email:

Dear Vonage Investor:

We would like to clarify certain aspects of our Customer Directed Share Program (Customer DSP). Pursuant to the terms and conditions of our Customer DSP, we agreed to sell to you, through our underwriters, and you agreed to purchase, the number of allocated shares set forth in your Customer DSP account at www.vonageipo.com.

To be clear, we have not offered and are not offering to repurchase any of our shares of common stock from our customers.

For further information on our Customer DSP, including our obligations to our underwriters to cover certain of their losses, please see our prospectus, which can be found by clicking here or by visiting
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1272830/000104746906007592/a2170744z424b4.htm.

Sincerely,
Vonage Investor Relations

Posts: 62 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 29, 2005 Posts: 62

I am not paying a cent for this.

They came out today and said that they will buyback shares from the underwritters (which was an official media release from Vonage, not just a rumor), and now they say everyone must pay. I have had enough of this company, refuse to pay for these shares, and am canceling my Vonage service, not because it is not a good service, just because i have lost all faith and trust in this company.

An IPO for a company is supposed to be a really good event, a sign of prosperity and achievement. Vonage's IPO has been a laughing stock. I refuse to be involved with any sort of company like this.

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 31, 2006 Posts: 16

This should do wonders for the stock price tomorrow. Overnight trading already has them down .10 I am predicting VG will stabilize at $8.50/share by end of July.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: May 31, 2006 Posts: 2

"and am canceling my Vonage service"

according to the WSJ, expect about an 11 hour wait on the phone to cancel your service and say a prayer that porting your number to another service provider works. If it doesn't work, according to the WSJ, you'll be asked to sign up for Vonage again (paying all fees) and then cancelling again (add another 11 hour phone wait).

Posts: 192 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Oct 08, 2004 Posts: 192

lounging wrote:

"and am canceling my Vonage service"

according to the WSJ, expect about an 11 hour wait on the phone to cancel your service and say a prayer that porting your number to another service provider works. If it doesn't work, according to the WSJ, you'll be asked to sign up for Vonage again (paying all fees) and then cancelling again (add another 11 hour phone wait).

Where does it say that?

Posts: 17 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 23, 2006 Posts: 17

ckudrna wrote:

I am not paying a cent for this.

They came out today and said that they will buyback shares from the underwritters (which was an official media release from Vonage, not just a rumor), and now they say everyone must pay. I have had enough of this company, refuse to pay for these shares, and am canceling my Vonage service, not because it is not a good service, just because i have lost all faith and trust in this company.

An IPO for a company is supposed to be a really good event, a sign of prosperity and achievement. Vonage's IPO has been a laughing stock. I refuse to be involved with any sort of company like this.

I second that. Sue me.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: May 31, 2006 Posts: 3

Read the release carefully - "To be clear, we have not offered and are not offering to repurchase any of our shares of common stock from our customers".

Basically - they are still legally obligated to buy them from the underwriters. They are going to screwed the ppl that have paid since they did not discuss what they plan to do with those that haven't paid for their shares. This is unreal - you would think they can at least go after those that do not intend to pay after they came marketing their shares to us and botch the deal this badly. The stock has not even come close to closing up one day, doesn't that suggest someone F up.

Posts: 192 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Oct 08, 2004 Posts: 192

ckudrna wrote:

They came out today and said that they will buyback shares from the underwritters (which was an official media release from Vonage, not just a rumor...

Vonage did not do any media releases today:

See here: http://pr.vonage.com/releases.cfm?ReleasesType=