IPO REPORT
Vonage drawing interest despite red ink
By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch
Last Update: 8:15 AM ET May 23, 2006
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Vonage is expected to price its $500 million initial public offering on Tuesday night as the deal's brand name draws interest despite its absence of profits since its origins 11 years ago.
Vonage (VG : vonage holdings corp com
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VG0.00, 0.00, 0.0%) is multiple times oversubscribed and will likely price at the top end of its $16-$18 price range, IPO tracking firm theflyonthewall.com said. Early Tuesday, Vonage reiterated its price range in a filing with regulators.
The Internet phone specialist will price the offer of 31.25 million shares in a bid to raise about $531 million at the middle of its price range.
Six major Wall Street banks are underwriting the IPO, including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Investment Bank and Bear Stearns.
A move by Vonage to set aside about 13.5% of the offering for its own customer could be paying off, as demand for the deal remains strong, according to theflyonthewall.com See story on customer stock plan.
Although Vonage has booked quick revenue and subscriber growth to the latest reported level of 1.6 million, it's also spent heavily on marketing and rung up a total loss of $467 million since its inception in 1995.
It spent $88 million in marketing in the first quarter, compared with $118.9 million in revenue during the same period.
Todd Rethemeier, analyst with Soleil SunTerre Research, set a $16, year-end price target for Vonage
"Our major concern is the level of competition in the voice telecom business and the likelihood that prices will continue to decrease over the next few years," Rethemeier said in a note to clients. "We cannot recommend the stock for long-term investors at the IPO filing range."
On the other hand, Vonage touts its position to benefit from estimated growth of U.S voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) users from about 1.2 million in 2004 to 8.2 million-to-15.3 million by the end of 2007.
"As a leading provider of broadband telephone services using VoIP, we believe we are well positioned to benefit from the growth expected in this marketplace," Vonage said in its IPO prospectus.
Vonage founder Jeffrey A. Citron stepped down as CEO in February, when Vonage named Mike Snyder, an executive in the ADT business of Tyco (TYC : Tyco International Ltd.
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Citron assumed the role of chairman and chief strategist, "so that he can dedicate his time to focusing on moving the company into new product areas, technologies, growth opportunities, and employee culture," the Holmdel, N.J. company said at the time.
Citron owns about 53.7 million shares, or 41% of Vonage's common stock. Based on a $17 share price, Citron's stake will be worth about $913 million. After the IPO, he'll own about 31% of the company.
He once paid $22.5 million in civil penalties as part of one of the largest fines ever collected by the Securities and Exchange Commission against individuals, according to regulatory filings by the Internet phone company.
Citron also agreed to accept an SEC order that permanently bars him from association with any securities broker or dealer.
The 2003 settlement came after an SEC probe of online trading firm Datek. Citron settled theses charges without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC's complaint.
The SEC alleged that Datek Securities, Citron and other individuals participated in "an extensive fraudulent scheme" involving improper use of the Nasdaq Stock Market's Small Order Execution System from 1993 to 1998 to make tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits.
The SEC reached a separate settlement with Datek Securities through its successor, iCapital Markets, in January 2002, which resulted in a censure and a civil penalty of $6.3 million.
"There is a risk that some third parties will not do business with us, that some prospective investors will not purchase our securities or that some customers may be wary of signing up for service with us as a result of allegations against Citron," the IPO document said in its "risks" section.
"We believe that some financial institutions and accounting firms have declined to enter into business relationships with us in the past, at least in part because of these matters," the filing continued.
Besides Citron, other major shareholder include 3i Group plc, Bain Capital, LLC, Institutional Venture Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and New Enterprise Associates.
Steve Gelsi is a reporter for MarketWatch in New York. |
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