Richard Yoo’s Weblog

Everyone knows I love Vonage… so a lot of people have been asking me if I was going to participate in their IPO. Many where shocked to hear me say:

No.

Don’t get me wrong, as a customer, Vonage is awesome… there’s no other phone service I’d ever have. However, this is an investment decision and here’s why I was down on them:

• With BIG competition like AT&T’s Call Vantage and Time Warner’s Digital phone - its going to be tough going for Vonage… for the incumbent carriers, VoIP is life or death for them… so they’re not going to down without a serious fight.
• At about $17/share - Vonage is saying that they’re worth around $2.5billion. I don’t know about that - especially when you consider that Vonage has never turned a profit.
• Don’t forget the whole Net Neutrality issue.
• To me, its clear that Vonage is involving their customers in the IPO because they want to build excitement and demand for their stock… the problem is that 3 days before the closing of the “customer round” they sent out an email reminder that it was “closing soon” and that we’d better hurry up and get our money in… which sounds like they had problems getting people to sign up. So Econ 101 says that when there’s no demand, prices go down.

So what ended up happening? Lets go see…

Shares of Vonage Holdings (VG), the Internet telephone pioneer, dropped in their trading debut Wednesday after pricing late Tuesday at $17 a share, the middle of the expected range.
Shares of Vonage fell $2.31, or 13.6%, to $14.69 in late trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Investors drop Internet phone pioneer Vonage

And my favorite:

“Internet phone service provider Vonage Holdings Corp.’s initial public offering encountered shareholder static Wednesday morning, and appeared headed for the worst IPO debut in two years.“

Vonage IPO is a Train Wreck

Perhaps Buffett was right - maybe investing (or not investing) in things you understand the most is a good thing.

This is a very impressive and compelling demo of Parallels for MacOS:

Watch this…. you’ll want a Vette afterwards:

All you ever wanted to know about Apple’s New NYC Store.

If you didn’t already know, its all underground.

Video: Apple’s 24-7 retail store

And here’s a CNBC clip:

Update: Here’s a sweet Panaramic photo of it:

http://www.panoramas.dk/newspanos/f20-apple-store.html

Wow, its like Motorola is trying take over with cell phone radiation!

Ten highest-radiation cell phones (United States)

Ten lowest-radiation cell phones (United States)

Hate how SWA doesn’t have assigned seats? Don’t like the “herding of the cattle” while trying to board?

Change is not certain, and could not happen before 2008, company says.

Southwest considers move to assigned seating

I’ve always thought this was true, but its good to see someone has written about it:

You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats the waiter.

CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character

This is fascinating stuff:

Successes or failures of employees in the workplace can be traced to what kind of father they had, a psychologist argues in a new book.

In “The Father Factor,” Stephan Poulter lists five styles of fathers — super-achieving, time bomb, passive, absent and compassionate/mentor — who have powerful influences on the careers of their sons and daughters.

How “Daddy” affects your job: psychologist

Everyone thinking about buying a house should read this:

Sell Now! : The End of the Housing Bubble

One of my favorite quotes in the book talks about how the housing market in San Antonio has dropped 20% in value as of late, but nobody knows it because its typical that people don’t adjust for inflation or for the lower interest rates (which lowers the value of owning a home since it becomes less of a tax-shelter when interest rates drop).

Another great article of relevance is “The New Road to Serfdom: An Illustrated Guide To The Coming Real Estate Collapse” in the May 2006 issue of Harper’s Magazine.

I no longer have the desire to own a home.
Update: Wow, looks like San Antonio is worse than the book said it was:

San Antonio’s housing market has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, according to RealtyTrac Inc.’s 2006 U.S. Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report.

The Alamo City ranked eighth nationwide in the number of foreclosed properties — reporting one foreclosure for every 133 households in the first quarter of 2006.

San Antonio one of country’s worst housing markets for foreclosures

The Halo 3 trailer is out! Maybe its time to get a Xbox 360 and an HDTV set after all…
Halo 3 Trailer

Apple’s new set of ads are great… the “Restarting” ad reminds me of the Kill Bill ad that Dirk sent me a while back…

Good stuff:

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

See how the car you own rates by the IIHS standards:

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

(You can search for your vehicle on the left-hand sidebar)