28 December 2007

VoIP clearly has moved into the mainstream, but 2007 marked a yearof high-profile stumbles that appear to signal the end of standalone IPtelephony.

Vonage Holdings Corp.s tribulations seemed tomake headlines more than any other tech company in 2007. The pro-viderin March lost a patent suit to Verizon Communications Inc. and, inSeptember, another to Sprint Nextel Corp. In mid-October, Vonageannounced it also was being sued by AT&T Inc. for patentinfringement. Through it all, Vonage stock plummeted to its lowestpoint, the balance sheets still dont show a profit and CEO MichaelSnyder resigned. Given all of that, not to mention the millions Vonagemust pay Verizon and Sprint, theres much conjecture about the futureof Vonage. Will a rival buy the company? Will Vonage close up shop? Orwill it keep swimming against the tide?