At the recent O'Reilly ETel conference I had a chance to sit and spend some time with Moshe Maeir from the Flat Planet Phone Company. To be clear, I don't use Flat Planet myself, but I did name Moshe as one of the Under-recognized Heroes of the Voice Revolution in a recent post. His commitment to excellence and servcie delivery are far beyond the norm. Moshe's one of those individuals I'll watch closely for years to come. He's someone I'm enormously pleased to now count as a friend.

Moshe's friendship and commitment extend to holding out a branch to rescue a company sinking into the quicksand - Vonage. My own thoughts are posted here and here just lately.

Here's what Moshe said today, but keep reading for more below.

I am offering $3.22 per share!

Posted on March 27th, 2007 by Moshe Maeir

Mr. Jeffrey Citron

Vonage

Dear Sir,

I am offering to buy your company for $3.22 per share. Please do not hesitate with your answer, you will not get a better price. Between the two of us , you do not really have a choice. This offer is good until April 1st at 12pm. You can reach me at sip:moshe@flatplanetphone.net. I am sure your engineers will know how to make a sip call, though your customers can not. By the way, If you had opened up the network for your customers, maybe you would not have been in this situation. Instead you decided to let others take technology forward, while you insisted on selling a simple landline replacement.

Jeff, let me tell you what I will do once I buy the company -

1. The waste of a  million dollars a day on advertising will cease immediately
2. We will introduce advanced IP services for Vonage customers
3. We will target the fast growing SMB hosted PBX market
4. We will sell the company in 2 years for $6 a share. With a gross profit of $112.00 a year per customer, there is no reason we can't!

Jeff, you bet the company on your strategy and you lost. On the way you invented a new industry and we are all grateful for that, but now it is time for you to go to a new venture. Good Luck. I hope to hear from you by Sunday at noon.

Best Regards

Moshe Maeir

Cheeky? Do you really think so? I do. It's a bold, cheeky, decisive move that demonstrates vision, leadership, foresight and commitment to success. Things Vonage has been sorely lacking. Had Vonage leadership had a dash of this sort of brash boldness in their business, Vonage wouldn't be in the situation it's in today. They desparately need a saviour to avoid being swallowed and spit out by the legacy telecommunications industry. They have little choice and few options.

Kudos, Moshe, for a bold move. It demonstrates why you're a market leader destined to do huge things in the industry.

I've never been a Vonage customer or a fan. But I'll go on record here. If Vonage takes Moshe's offer, I'll sign up as a customer. And I'll invest. Because that's the kind of leadership that demonstrates, to customer and shareholders, that is simply isn't enough to survive. A winning business needs to thrive.


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