Mark Evans

What Say You, Jeff Citron?

Any bets on what Jeff Citron will talk about today during his keynote speech at the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto? Will he make a mea culpa given Vonage shares have tumbled 25% since the IPO last month? Or will he make a “the world is still great, Vonage is still great, VoIP is still great,” sales pitch/speech? Apparently, Vonage still has another week before he can reallly start to talk openly again so expect Citron to be in sales-mode today. Still, it would be interesting to find his take on why the stock has performed so badly and whether its performance will have any impact on the company's ability attract new customers. By the way, Citron's stake in Vonage is still worth about $500-million, which gives him a six-fold return on his original investment. At the very least, you have to give him credit for hitting another entrepreneurial jackpot. His earlier successes include Island ECN, which was sold to the Instinet Group for $503-million, and Datek, which became one of the largest online brokerage houses before it was acquired by Ameritrade for $1.3-billion. The guy has a knack for recognizing opportunities where technology is going to have a disruptive affect.
Update: Citron's keynote lasted all of 15 minutes and didn't feature a Q&A as the quiet period lasts until June 19. It was 900 seconds little glitz or substance. Perhaps the only thing of interest was a new USB fob that turns any computer into a Vonage phone.