If you have been a Vonage subscriber [in the U.S.] over the past six months, the company is offering you the opportunity to get part of the IPO. In an e-mail sent to customers, the company said it has reserved part of the offering at the IPO price - believed to be $16 to $18 a share. For an IPO with more than few skeptics (including me), this is a brilliant marketing move because it offers Vonage's valued customers the opportunity - at least in theory - to cash in after the shares start trading. In many ways, Vonage has no choice but to do all it can togenerate some buzz if it wants the IPO to be successful. After all, this is a company that continues to post large losses as it spends heavily on marketing to attract customers and stave off growing competition from cablecos and the telcos. The true-believers will tell you Vonage will suddenly become profitable once it cuts back on marketing but the reality is it really can't afford to turn off the tap unless it wants to risk lose brand awareness among consumers. I still believe the end game for Vonage is an acquisition by a large cableco or carrier because it will be a challenge for it to remain viable amid growing competition. The problem, however, is Vonage has valued itself at $2.6-billion, or $2,000 per subscriber, which is a rich price for any suitor to cough up.
For an in-depth looking at Vonage's customer-friendly IPO and its prospects, check out Ars Technica. Some of my recent posts on the Vonage IPO include Caveat Emptor and Diggin' Into the S-1.
Update: Russell Shaw has a good post on the four reasons why Vonage's e-mail and phone IPO sales strategy is wrong.

If you've ever wondered about Craig Newmark, a.ka. the guy behind Craigslist.com, the Times of London ran a long feature in yesterday's paper. When you think about someone dramatically impacting the newspaper industry's future, you think about a guy like Rupert Murdoch with his bold, global ambitions and his large pile of cash. Newmark, on the other hand, is a regular guy/nerd who apparently takes a bus to work and has somehow managed to resist the temptation to trade his large stake in the classified-ads company for mega-millions. Instead, he has ambitions to do good rather than get rich. Perhaps this is what's made Craigslist such a phenomena: when you use the service (including the paid real estate part), you feel like part of altruistic. If you're interested in learning more on Craigslist, check out the documentary 24 hours on craiglist. We were disappointed not to be able get Craig or COO Jim Buckmaster to come to the mesh conference next week given one of our panels looking at the future business models for newspapers.