Sprint hits up Vonage for another $80 million

Vonage, everyone's favorite "gettin' sued by The Man" company has taken another beating in the Sprint-Nextel patent suit, agreeing to settle the case and license the telco's internet-calling technology for the tidy sum of $80 million. This comes hot on the heels of last month's ruling, which stipulated that Vonage was to pay $69.5 million to Sprint over six patents which the mobile phone company says it had infringed. "We are pleased to resolve our dispute with Sprint and enter into a productive future relationship," said Sharon O'Leary, General Counsel for Vonage, though it's possible she wasn't as ecstatic as that quote would have you believe. This is just another money-siphoning event for the VoIP company, which in March was hit up for $66 million from Verizon for illegally using some of its patents. If you're keeping count at home, that's $215.5 million paid out. If this keeps up, they may not even be able to afford those snappy commercials anymore. [Warning: read link requires subscription]

[mlb @ Oct 8th 2007 1:04PM]

Woo hoo woo hoo hoo...oh wait.

[dcny @ Oct 9th 2007 3:19PM]

how much money do they got left every sues them

[John @ Oct 8th 2007 1:24PM]

I lived through the wild west days of trying to get lower cost telecom services with competitive local exchange companies and was burned badly. Now I feel like this is a déjà vu – as I have Vonage service. I am tired of going with service providers who are either not well funded or in this case not well endowed with technology that is actually their own. The alternatives seem to be limited as many other providers are small or going under (just look at Sunrocket). I hear there are some good providers that are stable because they are well funded, e.g. Net2Phone, but I am very gun shy. What a mess!

[keithacole @ Oct 8th 2007 1:29PM]

come on vonage.. dont fail me now! been hanging with you guys for 2 years now, even made $$ refering family

[pjnofrills @ Oct 8th 2007 1:31PM]

Non Pay site:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/vonage-sprint-settle-patent-dispute/story.aspx?guid=%7B6AFF3A80-8018-47BA-9C7B-BBF050883D03%7D

[chris @ Oct 8th 2007 1:40PM]

I am not sure that you statement about 215mil paid out is correct. I am believe that the 80mil that they agreed to covers the 69mil in the judgement and allows them to use over 100 sprint patents related to connecting phone calls.

[spsmyk @ Oct 8th 2007 2:12PM]

Chris,

I think your math is a more accurate analysis. The earlier reports stated the 80mil number includes settlement of the lawsuit, which includes both past and future use of the patents at dispute.

[chris @ Oct 8th 2007 1:48PM]

Doh!... sorry, need to remember to read what I typed before I submit.

[bob @ Oct 8th 2007 2:02PM]

Well, their stock is up 75%

[jason51873 @ Oct 8th 2007 2:24PM]

LOL good hit them for enough to make them go out of business so I don't have to hear that ultra annoying woo hooo woo hoo hoo commercial anymore!!!

[Cupajo @ Oct 8th 2007 2:39PM]

Hey! How about I hit *you* hard enough that I don't have to read your annoying posts anymore? Two things. One, if you don't want to watch the commercials, step into this century and buy a DVR. Two, those 'woo hoo' commercials haven't (as far as I've seen) been on for almost a year.

This who thing is a shame, really. Vonage provided a superior product at a much lower price than the rest of these clowns. Verizon and Sprint can't innovate, so they litigate.

[Cupajo @ Oct 8th 2007 2:40PM]

"whole". This 'whole' thing.

[jason51873 @ Oct 8th 2007 6:31PM]

I don't give 2 craps about their service because their commercials are just that annoying. I boycott them and despise them because I so sick of that fkn wooo hooo bulls**t.

[Tim Ficke @ Oct 8th 2007 9:30PM]

@cupajo: first off if you're gonna be an ass to someone else u better be able to spell a simple word like "whole"
secondly, i agree those commercials are waaaaaaaaaaaay to annoying.

[Motorola 3G Victim @ Oct 8th 2007 3:17PM]

Well I think its good news. They may be the only independent VoIP provider left that can now legally operate in the US.

[rawhead @ Oct 8th 2007 3:24PM]

What I want to know as a current Vonage customer is: do I need to start thinking about ditching the company, and if yes, what are the alternatives? I guess I could go cellphone only, but still... having a "home" phone with FAX abilities still can come in handy once in a while...

[Tim Ficke @ Oct 8th 2007 4:35PM]

It may just be me but those commercials annoy the fuck out of me.
Bad company Bad commercials...

[jason51873 @ Oct 8th 2007 6:33PM]

Totally agree - see my above post!

[Joe @ Oct 8th 2007 6:50PM]

Where is Vonage going to get the money? They've never made a dime of net profit and their losses are increasing.

[Cscamp20 @ Oct 8th 2007 7:01PM]

Im am sick of this Telecom companies suing Voip companies like Vonage. This patent lawsuits are bull$hit. They're just losing customers to Vonage that's why they're suing the company.

As a Vonage customer who saves money every month on phone bill, this is very frustrating. I have had great service with Vonage for almost 4 years now and never had a problem.

What's small company like Vonage chance's against Telecom companies like Verizon and Nextel? They have more money and can hire better lawyers.

[Michael Violette @ Oct 9th 2007 1:21AM]

CSCamp20, I totally agree with you. I have been with Vonage for about 4 or more years and love the bill of 33 dollars for a long time while all of my other friends have phone service through all the larger telecoms for over 2x the price. I love the new Vonage commercial where they make fun of the phone companies. I too though wonder when I will lose my phone service and end up having to spend more money switching to "Blah" Verizon :( "ugh". I found out earlier this year that my cell phone company is getting bought out by Verizon and refuse to switch except as a last resort.
When will these big Bell companies realize that they need to lower their prices because no one wants to spend higher prices for the same services as someone spending a lot less and getting a lot more for their dollar. Please tell me what is wrong. You would think that the larger the company and more customers the smaller the bill??? I think they are monopolizing the market to make their wallets thicker at our expense.