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| VG > SEC Filings for VG > Form 10-Q on 11-May-2009 | All Recent SEC Filings |
11-May-2009
Quarterly Report
You should read the following discussion together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Form 10-Q and our audited financial statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008. This discussion contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time the statements are made and/or management's belief as of that time with respect to future events and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to be materially different. Important factors that could cause such differences include but are not limited to: restrictions in our debt agreements that may limit our operating flexibility; any failure to meet New York Stock Exchange listing requirements; the competition we face; worsening economic conditions; our history of net operating losses; our ability to obtain additional financing if needed; results of pending litigation and intellectual property and other litigation that may be brought against us; results of regulatory inquiries into our business practices; differences between our service and traditional phone services, including our 911 service; our dependence on third party facilities, equipment and services; system disruptions or flaws in our technology; our dependence on our customers' existing broadband connections; uncertainties relating to regulation of VoIP services; and other factors that are set forth in the "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and in our Current Reports on Form 8-K. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, and therefore, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date this Form 10-Q is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Financial Information Presentation
For the financial information discussed in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, other than per share, per line amounts, subscriber lines and employees, amounts are presented in thousands, except where noted.
Recent Developments
On February 9, 2009, we were notified by the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") that we had fallen below the NYSE's continued listing standard relating to minimum average global market capitalization. Section 802.01B of the NYSE's Listed Company Manual requires that our average global market capitalization be not less than $100 million over a consecutive 30 trading-day period. We submitted a plan that demonstrates our ability to regain compliance within 18 months which was accepted by the NYSE. The plan, submitted on a confidential basis to the NYSE, included a discussion of our operational and financial initiatives and the projected impact of these initiatives on our results in 2009 and 2010. As a result of the plan acceptance, Vonage's common stock will continue to be listed on the NYSE. We will be subject to quarterly reviews by the NYSE to ensure progress toward its plan to restore compliance with this continued listing standard.
We recently completed the process of upgrading our network, systems and procedures to meet Payment Card Industry ("PCI") data security standards, which requires periodic audits, including an initial audit that began in late 2008, by independent third parties to assess compliance, which was successfully completed by the end of the first quarter of 2009. PCI data security standards are a comprehensive set of requirements for enhancing payment account data security that was developed by the PCI Security Standards Council including American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide and VISA Inc., to help facilitate the broad adoption of consistent data security measures. Failure to comply with the security requirements as identified in annual audits or to rectify a security issue may result in fines. While we believe it is unusual, restrictions on accepting payment cards, including a complete restriction, may be imposed on companies that are not compliant.
Overview
We are a leading, pure-play provider of broadband telephone services to residential and small office and home office customers with approximately 2.6 million subscriber lines as of March 31, 2009. While customers in the United States represented 94% of our subscriber lines at March 31, 2009, we continue to serve customers internationally with services in Canada and in the United Kingdom.
Our service is portable and we enable our customers to make and receive phone calls with a telephone almost anywhere a broadband Internet connection is available. We transmit these calls using Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, technology, which converts voice signals into digital data packets for transmission over the Internet. At a cost effective rate, each of our calling plans provides a number of basic features typically offered by traditional telephone service providers, plus a wide range of enhanced features that we believe differentiate our service and offer an attractive value proposition to our customers. We also offer a number of premium services for additional costs.
Vonage has developed both a direct sales channel, as represented by web sites and toll free numbers, and a retail distribution channel through national retailers including Best Buy and Wal-Mart. The direct and retail distribution channels are supported through highly integrated advertising campaigns across multiple media such as online, television, direct mail, alternative media, telemarketing, partner marketing and customer referral programs.
Our primary source of revenue is subscription fees that we charge customers for our service plans, primarily on a monthly basis. We also generate revenue from the sale of devices that connect a customer's phone to the Internet, for international calls customers make that are not included in their service plan, for additional features that customers add to their service plans and through activation fees we charge customers to activate their service.
Trends in Our Industry and Key Operating Data
A number of trends in our industry have a significant effect on our results of
operations and are important to an understanding of our financial statements.
Also, the table below includes key operating data that our management uses to
measure the growth and operating performance of our business:
Three Months Ended
March 31,
2009 2008
Gross subscriber line additions 226,610 281,329
Net subscriber line additions (6,493 ) 30,133
Subscriber lines (at period end) 2,583,861 2,610,360
Average monthly customer churn 3.1 % 3.3 %
Average monthly revenue per line $ 28.86 $ 28.85
Average monthly telephony services revenue per
line $ 27.78 $ 27.87
Average monthly direct cost of telephony services
per line $ 6.67 $ 7.26
Marketing costs per gross subscriber line addition $ 289.90 $ 216.47
Employees (excluding temporary help) (at period
end) 1,413 1,722
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Broadband adoption. The number of U.S. households with broadband Internet access has grown significantly. We expect this trend to continue. We benefit from this trend because our service requires a broadband Internet connection and our potential addressable market increases as broadband adoption increases.
Changing competitive landscape. We are facing increasing competition from other companies that offer multiple services such as cable television, video services, voice and broadband Internet service. These competitors are offering VoIP or other voice services as part of a bundle. In addition, we believe several of these competitors are working to develop new integrated offerings that we cannot provide and that could make their services more attractive to customers. For example, as wireless providers offer more minutes at lower prices and companion landline alternative services, their services have become more attractive to households as a replacement for wireline service. We also compete against established alternative voice communication providers and independent VoIP service providers. Some of these service providers may choose to sacrifice revenue in order to gain market share and have offered their services at lower prices or for free.
Gross subscriber line additions. Gross subscriber line additions for a particular period are calculated by taking the net subscriber line additions during that particular period and adding to that the number of subscriber lines that terminated during that period. This number does not include subscriber lines both added and terminated during the period, where termination occurred within the first 30 days after activation. The number does include, however, subscriber lines added during the period that are terminated within 30 days of activation but after the end of the period.
Net subscriber line additions. Net subscriber line additions for a particular period reflect the number of subscriber lines at the end of the period, less the number of subscriber lines at the beginning of the period.
Subscriber lines. Our subscriber lines include, as of a particular date, all subscriber lines from which a customer can make an outbound telephone call on that date. Our subscriber lines include fax lines and SoftPhones but do not include our virtual phone numbers or toll free numbers, which only allow inbound telephone calls to customers. As part of a database review, we identified 16,802 subscriber lines that did not meet the criteria for inclusion as subscriber lines as of December 31, 2008. We recorded an adjustment as of January 1, 2009 for these lines which we considered to be immaterial to the current and prior periods. This adjustment had no impact to our financial statements but will impact per line metrics. Subscriber lines including this adjustment decreased from 2,610,360 as of March 31, 2008 to 2,583,861 as of March 31, 2009. Excluding the adjustment, we believe that the decrease in our subscriber lines was primarily due to increasing wireless substitution, worsening economic conditions and customer acquisition and targeting efforts not being as effective as planned.
Average monthly customer churn. Average monthly customer churn for a particular period is calculated by dividing the number of customers that terminated during that period by the simple average number of customers during the period, and dividing the result by the number of months in the period. The simple average number of customers during the period is the number of customers on the first day of the period, plus the number of customers on the last day of the period, divided by two. Terminations, as used in the calculation of churn statistics, do not include customers terminated during the period if termination occurred within the first 30 days after activation. Our average monthly customer churn was 3.1% and 3.3% for the three months ended March 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively. We believe this decrease was driven by our effort to improve user experience with our service and the quality of our service. We are working to address network quality and improve the quality of our customer service in order to decrease churn. We monitor churn on a daily basis and use it as an indicator of the level of customer satisfaction. Other companies may calculate churn differently, and their churn data may not be directly comparable to ours. Customers who have been with us for a year or more tend to have a significantly lower churn rate than customers who have not. Our churn will fluctuate over time due to increased competitive pressures including wireless substitution, market place perception of our services and our ability to provide high quality customer care and network quality and add future innovative products and services.
Average monthly revenue per line. Average monthly revenue per line for a particular period is calculated by dividing our total revenue for that period by the simple average number of subscriber lines for the period, and dividing the result by the number of months in the period. The simple average number of subscriber lines for the period is the number of subscriber lines on the first day of the period, plus the number of subscriber lines on the last day of the period, divided by two. Our average monthly revenue per line increased slightly to $28.86 for the three months ended March 31, 2009 compared to $28.85 for the three months ended March 31, 2008. This increase is due to incremental customer equipment revenue, incremental international volume, lower credit activity and the benefit of incremental amortization of activation fees due to the change in the average customer relationship period partially offset by lower subscription fees due to changes in plan mix, foreign currency and incremental bad debt. This increase includes a benefit of $0.19 due to the adjustment of the opening subscriber line count.
Average monthly telephony services revenue per line. Average monthly telephony services revenue per line for a particular period is calculated by dividing our total telephony services revenue for that period by the simple average number of subscriber lines for the period, and dividing the result by the number of months in the period. Our average monthly telephony services revenue per line decreased to $27.78 for the three months ended March 31, 2009 from $27.87 for the three months ended March 31, 2008. This decrease includes a benefit of $0.18 due to the adjustment of the opening subscriber line count.
Average monthly direct cost of telephony services per line. Average monthly direct cost of telephony services per line for a particular period is calculated by dividing our direct cost of telephony services for that period by the simple average number of subscriber lines for the period, and dividing the result by the number of months in the period. We use the average monthly direct cost of telephony services per line to evaluate how effective we are at managing our costs of providing service. Our average monthly direct cost of telephony services per line was $6.67 for the three months ended March 31, 2009 compared to $7.26 for the three months ended March 31, 2008 due primarily to the decrease in customer base and better rates from our service providers. This decrease includes a $0.04 increase due to the adjustment of the opening subscriber line count.
Marketing cost per gross subscriber line addition. Marketing cost per gross subscriber line addition is calculated by dividing our marketing expense for a particular period by the number of gross subscriber line additions during the period. Marketing expense does not include the cost of certain customer acquisition activities, such as rebates and promotions, which are accounted for as an offset to revenues, or customer equipment subsidies, which are accounted for as direct cost of goods sold. As a result, it does not represent the full cost to us of obtaining a new customer. Marketing cost per gross subscriber line addition increased to $289.90 for the three months ended March 31, 2009 compared to $216.47 for the three months ended March 31, 2008 due primarily to our plan to spend more to grow our business and a reduction in gross subscriber line additions compared to the prior year primarily due to increasing wireless substitution, worsening economic conditions and customer acquisition and targeting efforts not being as effective as planned.
Employees. Employees represent the number of personnel that are on our payroll and exclude temporary or outsourced labor.
Regulation. Our business has developed in an environment largely free from regulation. The United States and other countries, however, are examining how VoIP services should be regulated, and a number of initiatives could have an impact on our business. For example, the FCC has concluded that wireline broadband Internet access, such as DSL and Internet access provided by cable companies, is an information service and is subject to lighter regulation than telecommunications services. This order may give providers of wireline broadband Internet access the right to discriminate against our services, charge their customers an extra fee to use our service or block our service. More recently, however, the FCC found that a major cable operator's network management practices, which had the effect of degrading certain applications, were not allowed under the FCC's network neutrality policy statement. We believe it is unlikely that such blocking or discrimination will occur on a widespread basis, but if it does it would have a material adverse effect on us. Other regulatory developments including state efforts to impose state telecommunications regulation on us and the FCC's proposed reforms for the intercarrier compensation and universal service funding systems may affect our business by increasing the taxes and regulatory fees we pay and our operating expenses, including legal and consulting fees, or requiring us to make significant capital expenditures.
Operating Revenues
Operating revenues consists of telephony services revenue and customer equipment and shipping revenue.
Telephony services revenue. Substantially all of our operating revenues are telephony services revenue. In the United States, we offer three residential plans, "Residential Premium Unlimited", "VonagePro" and "Residential Basic 500," and two small office and home office plans, "Small Business Unlimited" and "Small Business Basic." Each of our unlimited plans offers unlimited domestic calling as well as unlimited calling to Puerto Rico, Canada and selected European countries, subject to certain restrictions, and each of our basic plans offers a limited number of domestic calling minutes per month. Also, we currently offer international calling plans that are bundled with our Residential Premium Unlimited plan where a customer can make calls to a chosen international region. Under our basic plans, we charge on a per minute basis when the number of domestic calling minutes included in the plan is exceeded for a particular month. International calls (except for calls to certain European countries under our unlimited plans and a variety of countries under international calling plans) are charged on a per minute basis. These per minute fees are not included in our monthly subscription fees. We offer similar plans in Canada and the United Kingdom.
We derive most of our telephony services revenue from monthly subscription fees that we charge our customers under our service plans. We also offer residential fax service, virtual phone numbers, toll free numbers and other services, for each of which we charge
an additional monthly fee. One business fax line is included with each of our two small office and home office plans, but we charge monthly fees for additional business fax lines. We automatically charge these fees to our customers' credit cards, debit cards and electronic check payments, or ECP, monthly in advance. We also automatically charge the per minute fees not included in our monthly subscription fees to our customers' credit cards, debit cards or ECP monthly in arrears unless they exceed a certain dollar threshold, in which case they are charged immediately.
By collecting monthly subscription fees in advance and certain other charges immediately after they are incurred, we are able to reduce the amount of accounts receivable that we have outstanding, thus allowing us to have lower working capital requirements. Collecting in this manner also helps us mitigate bad debt losses, which are recorded as a reduction to revenue. If a customer's credit card, debit card or ECP is declined, we generally suspend international calling capabilities as well as the customer's ability to incur domestic usage charges in excess of their plan minutes. Historically, in most cases, we are able to correct the problem with the customer within the current monthly billing cycle. If the customer's credit card, debit card or ECP could not be successfully processed during three billing cycles (i.e. the current and two subsequent monthly billing cycles), we terminate the account.
We also generate revenue by charging a fee for activating service. We charge an activation fee to our direct channel customers, or those customers who purchase equipment directly from us and to our retail channel customers, or customers who purchase equipment from retail stores. In 2007, for our direct channel customers, activation fees, together with the related customer acquisition amounts for equipment, were deferred and amortized over the estimated average customer relationship period of 60 months. In 2007, for our retail channel customers, rebates and retailer commissions up to but not exceeding the activation fee, were also deferred and amortized over the estimated average customer relationship period of 60 months. Starting January 1, 2008, due to the increase in churn, the customer relationship period was reduced to 48 months for both the direct and retail channel. The amortization of deferred customer equipment expense is recorded to direct cost of goods sold. The amortization of deferred rebates is recorded as a reduction to telephony services revenue and the amortization of deferred retailer commissions is recorded as marketing expense. For 2009, the average customer relationship period was further reduced to 44 months based upon analysis of historical trends. The impact of this change was not material to the consolidated results of operations.
In the United States, we charge regulatory recovery fees on a monthly basis to defray the costs associated with regulatory consulting and compliance as well as related litigation, E-911 compliance and to cover taxes that we are charged by the suppliers of telecommunications services. In addition, we charge customers Federal Universal Service Fund, or USF, and related fees, which fees we record as revenue.
We also generate revenue by charging a disconnect fee to those customers who terminate their service within two years of activation. Disconnect fees are recorded as revenue at the time the customer terminates service.
Telephony services revenue is offset by the cost of certain customer acquisition activities, such as rebates and promotions.
Customer equipment and shipping revenue. Customer equipment and shipping revenue consists of revenue from sales of customer equipment to our wholesalers or directly to customers and retailers. In addition, customer equipment and shipping revenue includes the fees that we charge our customers for shipping any equipment to them.
Operating Expenses
Operating expenses consist of direct cost of telephony services, royalties, direct cost of goods sold, selling, general and administrative expense, marketing expense and depreciation and amortization.
Total direct cost of telephony services. Total direct cost of telephony services primarily consists of fees that we pay to third parties on an ongoing basis in order to provide our services. These fees include:
• Access charges that we pay to other telephone companies to terminate domestic and international calls on the public switched telephone network. These costs represented approximately 46% and 43% of our direct cost of telephony services for the three months ended March 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively, with a portion of these payments ultimately being made to incumbent telephone companies. When a Vonage subscriber calls another Vonage subscriber, we do not pay an access charge.
• The cost of leasing internet transit services from multiple internet service providers. This internet connectivity is used to carry VoIP session initiation signaling and packetized audio media between our subscribers and our regional data centers.
• The cost of leasing from other telephone companies the telephone numbers that we provide to our customers. We lease these telephone numbers on a monthly basis.
• The cost of co-locating our regional data connection point equipment in third-party facilities owned by other telephone companies, Internet service providers, or co-location facility providers.
• The cost of providing local number portability, which allows customers to move their existing telephone numbers from another provider to our service. Only regulated telecommunications providers have access to the centralized number databases that facilitate this process. Because we are not a regulated telecommunications provider, we must pay other telecommunications providers to process our local number portability requests.
• Taxes that we pay on our purchase of telecommunications services from our suppliers or imposed by government agencies such as Federal USF and related fees.
• Royalties for use of third-party intellectual property.
Direct cost of goods sold. Direct cost of goods sold primarily consists of costs that we incur when a customer first subscribes to our service. These costs include:
• The cost of the equipment that we provide to customers who subscribe to our service through our direct sales channel in excess of activation fees. The remaining cost of customer equipment is deferred and amortized over the estimated average customer relationship period.
• The cost of the equipment that we sell directly to retailers.
• The cost of shipping and handling for customer equipment, together with the installation manual, that we ship to customers.
• The cost of certain products or services that we give customers as promotions.
Selling, general and administrative expense. Selling, general and administrative expense includes:
• Compensation and benefit costs for all employees, which is the largest component of selling, general and administrative expense and includes customer care, research and development, network engineering and operations, sales and marketing, executive, legal, finance, human resources and business development personnel.
• Share-based expense related to share-based awards to employees, directors and consultants.
• Outsourced labor related to customer care and retail in-store support activities.
• Transaction fees paid to credit card, debit card and ECP companies, which include a per transaction charge in addition to a percent of billings charge.
• Rent and related expenses.
• Professional fees for legal, accounting, tax, public relations, lobbying and development activities.
• Litigation settlements.
Marketing expense. Marketing expense consists of:
• Advertising costs, which comprise a majority of our marketing expense and include online, television, direct mail, alternative media, promotions, sponsorships and inbound and outbound telemarketing.
• Creative and production costs.
• The costs to serve and track our online advertising.
• Certain amounts we pay to retailers for newspaper insert advertising, product placement and activation commissions.
• The cost associated with our customer referral program.
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