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Filed under: Deals, Management, Industry, Vonage Holdings (VG)

For the first time in a long time, the future at Vonage (NYSE: VG) is brightening. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Vonage said Thursday that it had entered into a commitment letter with hedge fund Silver Point Finance LLC for as much as $215 million in financing.” The company is about to bring in a new CEO to replace founder Jeffrey Citron.

The new money will grant Vonage to pay down a significant part of its debt.

A better balance sheet does not necessarily make for a superior operating business, but it does buy the company time to prove that there’s room in the market for an independent VoIP company. Fortunately for Vonage, there probably is.

While cable companies now dominate the voice-over-IP market because they have the ability to deliver the product as part of their broadband and Television offering, not all customers want their eggs in one basket. Cable companies often score low on customer satisfaction surveys. Vonage can use this to its advantage.

By positioning itself as the better service alternative, Vonage has a reasonable chance to build a decent business. Over time, that should get the stock up from $1.59.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Market matters, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Black and Decker (BDK), Merrill Lynch (MER), Clear Channel Commun (CCU), Chipotle Mexican Grill’A’ (CMG), Fortune Brands (FO), Morgan Stanley (MS), Wachovia Corp (WB), Washington Mutual (WM), Economic data, Juniper Networks (JNPR), Crocs Inc (CROX), Delta Air Lines (DAL), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Housing

U.S. stock futures were lower Friday morning, a day after a selloff triggered by housing data. This day investors are bracing for more housing data at 10:00 a.m. EDT after already hearing that foreclosures soared 121% during the second quarter. Other point of interest will be durable goods data reported an hour before the opening bell. Meanwhile, oil continued the steady climb that started Thursday as the dollar weakens, trading above $126 a barrel. It’s Friday, and no many earnings reports are due.

While there aren’t many earnings reports today, there are a few including Fortune Brands (NYSE: FO), Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Black & Decker (NYSE: BDK) among others.

Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX) shares are tanking over 44% to $5 after after it cut its earnings outlook significantly on softer demand for its plastic shoes. With all those knockoffs around, is it any wonder? Robert W. Baird downgraded Crocs from Outperform to Neutral, slashing the target price from $21 to $5.

Meanwhile, Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR) surged 12% in premarket trading after the company not only beat estimates when reporting quarterly results Thursday, but also increased its sales forecast for the third-quarter much higher than analyst estimates. Friedman Billings and Citigroup both upgraded Juniper to Outperform and Buy respectively.

In deal news, Clear Channel Communications (NYSE: CCU) shareholders on Thursday approved a $17.9 billion takeover by private equity funds Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital. This ends the 20-month long effort.

Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) will continue its internet push and that the company was “done” Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) for now.

Meanwhile, Soleil upgraded world wide web search giant Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) from Hold to Purchase.

Merrill Lynch also upgraded Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) from Neutral to Purchase and Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) from Underperform to Neutral.

Financials:

Wachovia (NYSE: WB) stated late Thursday that its CFO, Thomas Wurtz, was stepping down as soon as a replacement is found. That’s after two weeks ago, the company brought in a new chief executive. For now Wall Street is not jumping up and down with joy as WB shares are down about 1.5% in premarket trading.

CNBC reports that “Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), which currently employs only 8,000 brokers, is targeting the massive Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) brokerage sales force in a major recruitment drive.” Both MS and MER shares are up in premarket action.

Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) shares seem to have stabilized after declining over 13% Thursday over an analyst note claiming creditors are pulling funds from the company. The company responded, saying that “WaMu funds all of its business through its banking operations and does not rely on commercial paper.”

CNBC also reports that Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) might be weighing the sale of at least part of its Neuberger Berman asset management unit.

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