The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Year

5. Sinking Feeling

Wall Street hung up on Vonage (VG Quote) with gusto this year.

The Internet phone company made its public debut in May, raising $531 million in a much-discussed IPO. But once the market opened, the voyage turned stomach-churning.

Shares lost 13% of their value the first day and a third of their value in the first week. Vonage botched its customer share allocation program, then threatened users who hadn't paid up with legal action. Big telco rivals sued for patent infringement.

Since then, earnings reports have shown Vonage is paying bigger bucks to attract each new user -- but more customers are dropping the service each month. Vonage doesn't expect to make money, even on a so-called adjusted operating basis, till 2008.

Still, Vonage hasn't been reticent about touting whatever virtues it might lay claim to.

"This quarter represents an important milestone for Vonage, as we begin to report our results as a newly public company," CEO Mike Snyder said in releasing earnings this past summer. "We also see this quarter as a key inflection point on our path to profitability."

Should be a good, long path.

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