s quality standards . no cleanup reason has been specified . please help improve this article if you can . may 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message vonage holdings corp. trading name vonage type public traded as nyse vg industry communications services founded january 2001 ; 15 years ago 2001 01 edison new jersey u.s. founders carlos bhola jeff pulver jeffrey citron headquarters holmdel new jersey united states area served worldwide key people alan masarek ceo david pearson cfo joe redling coo products phone over internet voip adapter and service subscription services vonage home business & enterprise voip phone service provider revenue 221.8 million 2015 operating income 16.58 million 2015 profit 8.34 million 2015 total assets 691.15 million 2015 members 2.5 million subscribers 2014 number of employees 1 400 2014 website www.vonage.com vonage v n d is a publicly held internet telephony service provider providing business and residential telecommunication services based on voice over internet protocol voip . the company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in holmdel township new jersey . as of 2014 vonage reported approximately 2.5 million subscriber lines in conjunction with mobile application services . 2 through a series of recent acquisitions vonage previously a consumer focused service provider expanded its presence in the business marketplace . 3 4 5 contents 1 history 1.1 restructuring efforts 1.2 initial public offering 1.3 recent acquisitions 2 patent infringement law suits 3 2009 customer service settlement 4 services 4.1 business services 4.2 residential services 4.3 service requirements 4.4 telephone number availability 4.5 emergency calls 4.6 quality of service and equipment compatibility 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit the company was originally called min x.com and was based in melville new york . 6 jeffrey citron former ceo and majority shareholder at datekonline was the first major investor in the early development stages . in october 2000 citron invested 1 million as seed capital . 7 the name was changed to vonage in december 2000 and in january 2001 vonage incorporated and moved to edison new jersey . 8 the company first offered subscription service in the united states then canada in 2004 and the united kingdom in 2005 . vonage went public on may 24 2006 . 9 in 2005 it relocated its headquarters to holmdel new jersey . 10 restructuring efforts edit in 2006 in preparation for an initial public stock offering ipo michael snyder former president of adt security services replaced vonage co founder jeffrey a. citron as ceo . 11 citron could not preside over the ipo because he was permanently barred from associating with any securities brokers or dealers . 12 13 14 15 in 2007 in an apparent restructuring effort to reduce ongoing net losses in the face of double digit stock price slips and patent infringement issues snyder resigned and citron returned as interim ceo . 16 the company announced plans for 10 % 180 layoffs as it secured 215 million in financing . 17 in the second quarter of 2010 with a change in management and improved sales the company s stock price increased 18 and on june 15 2010 vonage rose 17.06 percent 0.36 to 2.47 . 19 as part of its restructuring effort in 2010 vonage paid off 41 million of its debt at par negotiated the release of more than 40 million in cash from vendors and announced a comprehensive refinancing . this resulted in a 200 million pre payable term loan with interest rates at 9.75 % . vonage planned to get better terms by paying down debt ahead of schedule and by achieving sustained financial performance . between march and june 2011 vonage prepaid 70 million reducing the balance to 130 million the year end 2011 target . 20 initial public offering edit vonage offered shares of its stock to its existing customer base in the period before the initial public offering ipo . 21 typically only large institutional investors such as banks are able to buy shares of an ipo . 22 vonage s initial public offering occurred on the new york stock exchange on may 24 2006 opening at 17.00 per share . 9 the price closed at 14.85 a decrease of 12.7 percent the worst trading day for any ipo in 2006 up to that point . the ipo raised 531 million for the company . however the existing customers who lost money filed a class action lawsuit . 23 the ipo and its immediate aftermath also earned vonage a business 2.0 magazine award as 14th of 101 dumbest moments in business for 2006 . 24 in 2009 vonage reached an agreement with ipo investors . all shareholder claims against vonage and its individual directors and officers who were named as defendants were dismissed . 25 26 the amount of the settlement 3.6 million was paid by an insurance policy covering the directors and officers of the company . 27 28 29 the firms underwriting the ipo citigroup ubs and deutsche bank were fined a total of 845 000 and ordered to reimburse customers for failure to adequately supervise communications with investors . 30 nyse regulators went so far as to investigate possible short selling . 31 recent acquisitions edit beginning in 2013 vonage acquired several companies including vocalocity a software as a service saas provider of cloud based communications services for 130 million ; 32 telesphere a unified communications as a service ucaas provider to large companies for 114 million ; 33 icore networks also a ucsaas provider to large companies for 92 million ; simplesignal another ucsaas service provider to small and medium sized businesses for 25 million ; 34 35 gunify also a cloud based communications service provider to businesses price not disclosed . 36 37 38 patent infringement law suits edit on june 19 2006 verizon filed a lawsuit charging that vonage infringed on five of verizon s patents related to its voip service . 39 the patents describe technology for completing phone calls between voip users and people using phones on the traditional public switched network authenticating voip callers validating voip callers accounts fraud protection providing enhanced features using wi fi handsets with voip services and monitoring voip caller usage . in 2007 vonage launched a viral marketing campaign and website freetocompete.com which garnered press coverage about vonage its campaign the lawsuits and issues of competition with established telecom corporations . 40 41 42 43 on march 8 2007 a jury found vonage guilty of infringing three patents held by verizon and not guilty of infringing two other patents . the jury ordered vonage to pay us 58 million and a royalty rate of 5.5 % of every sale to a vonage customer back to verizon . subsequent to this jury award there were a series of appeals and intermediate stays on payment . vonage was punitively ordered by the court to stop signing up new customers ; 44 this was reversed on appeal three weeks later . 45 on november 19 2007 vonage agreed to pay 120 million in damages 46 to verizon . in other patent lawsuits by december 2007 vonage was ordered to pay 80 million to sprint nextel 47 and 39 million to at & t inc. 48 another lawsuit with nortel resulted in no monetary damages . 49 2009 customer service settlement edit in november 2009 vonage agreed to an assurance of voluntary compliance avc with 32 states . the settlement followed an investigation into complaints about the marketing of vonage services including confusion about availability and cost along with advertisements involving free services money back guarantees and trial periods . the consumer protection agreement also addressed complaints that some consumers were prevented from canceling the vonage service . in the settlement vonage agreed to pay the seven investigating states 3 million for costs issue refunds to complainants dating back to january 2004 and change several business practices in regard to advertising and customer retention . 50 51 services edit vonage offers cloud communications and calling plans for residential customers and businesses including small and medium sized businesses mid market companies and enterprises . business services edit vonage offers two unified communications platforms for businesses that integrate communications services such as video conferencing voicemail transcription and desktop sharing using voice as a platform . cloud communications services allow business customers to connect with various business applications and customer relationship management crm tools through a middleware technology . 52 53 for business customers that rely on high quantities of voice video and data communications in their day to day operations vonage provides quality of service over its own private multiprotocol label switching mpls network and via a software defined area network sd wan product . 54 55 56 57 residential services edit residential services provide home phone plans using voip voice over internet protocol over a broadband internet connection such as cable internet service or dsl . features for vonage home phone residential service includes voicemail transcription ; 411 calling ; caller id ; call waiting ; do not disturb ; and a network availability feature which forwards all calls to a mobile phone if internet connectivity is lost . 58 59 60 61 many of vonage s residential products offer international calling plans . 62 service requirements edit vonage customers must have a broadband internet connection such as cable internet service or dsl through an internet service provider isp . to initiate subscription a customer must provide a billing and shipping address in the country of service . vonage supplies an analog telephone adapter which connects a customer supplied standard analog telephone to the internet and the vonage service . 63 residents of the u.s. canada and the uk may subscribe to vonage by credit card from their respective country but the vonage adapter can be connected to the internet anywhere . usage is generally referred to as unlimited though vonage has different national fair use policies limiting vonage to phone calls to a few thousand minutes per month in the uk 64 canada 65 and u.s. 66 evidence suggests that calls are limited to a length of 3 hours and 56 minutes . telephone number availability edit subscribers may choose a number in the country of the service they subscribe to for their primary line in an area code of their choice . subscribers can obtain additional virtual numbers for a monthly fee . vonage also offers virtual numbers in mexico canada and europe . while the company supports porting a u.s. telephone number via the fcc s local number portability lnp not every phone number is available in every area code . additionally customers can transfer an existing number to vonage which can take up to 7 to 10 business days from the time the customer completes the number transfer authorization nta . 67 emergency calls edit vonage offered 911 service on a voip platform for the first time in 2003 . 68 for 911 location services to work subscribers must activate the 911 calling feature by registering their full address with the company . customers are responsible for maintaining their 911 location information at all times . 69 if a customer dials 911 before the 911 verification is completed the call will usually be routed to a national 911 call center where basic information must be given name location nature of emergency etc. after which the call is transferred to a local public service answering point like a local police department . 70 71 quality of service and equipment compatibility edit voip service relies upon consistent broadband isp uptime and voip equipment compatibility with the isp s modem . although voip was initially optimized for voice some fax equipment can be operated over voip 72 73 74 but compatibility of monitored alarm systems and other devices is less certain . 75 vonage offers specially commissioned fax line service . 76 vonage recommends customers keep a basic traditional landline dedicated to their home