Vonage May Face A Class-Suit

Non-savvy investors who got sucked into Vonage's disastrous IPO may have help on the way --- a class-action suit. Legal eagles (or is that vultures?) are circling the IPO, looking for grounds for a suit. Jonathan Berr of TheStreet.com reports that security lawyers say that Vonage may be vulnerable to legal action because of the way it's handled the IPO.

Vonage stock sank like a stone after the IPO, falling 26% in the first four days of trading. The company has implied it will make that up to some investors -- and legal experts say that if it does this for some but not all buyers, this could put it in legal jeopardy.

In addition, some Vonage customers have complained that they were told they were going to be allocated shares in the IPO, but didn't receive them. If I were them, I wouldn't complain, and would instead thank the company, but there's no accounting for investment preferences.

Some investors have complained that the Web site set up for Vonage customers to invest was buggy, and so they didn't have their shares sold in a timely manner.

Not only that, but Duke University Law professor James Cox told TheStreet.com that the SEC might get involved: "My guess is that the SEC should have an interest in taking a look at this," he said.No one should be surprised by this. Vonage is a company without a future. This IPO was based on smoke and mirrors, and legal actions are inevitable. VoIP will drive the cost of making phone calls to essentially zero, with cable companies and telcos giving voice away as loss leaders, and P2P apps like Skyp giving away voice calls on the PC.