Apparently, theres a rumor going around that BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) may Buy Vonage for $3.5 billion bucks. Yeah, no chance. From Om Malik:
That BellSouth is buying Vonage is even a rumor, that’s just loco. Why in the name of god would they pay $4375 per subscriber (total $3.5 billion) when they very well know that Vonage customers bail much before the vital two year pay-off period is over. Why would they spend $3.5 billion to buy Vonage when for $6.7 billion they can buy Qwest which has a) 1.122 million DSL customers, you know the kind of technology you need for Vonage to work, and b) $13.809 billion in revenues. I am glad BLS is declining to dignify the rumor and declining to comment.
Hell, at $4375/customer that's more expensive that Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), where customers are paying you for TV, Internet, and soon voice. Because there's not a snowballs chance in hell on this one, there's no need to continue on about how this would be such a bad idea. But I will say that whoever is out there starting rumors needs to put a little more thought into it if they want it to be beleived
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