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A refinancing deal announced in April and delayed several times by money-losing Internet phone provider Vonage (VG) is finally going ahead, the company announced this morning. In order to repurchase up to $253.5 million of Vonage’s outstanding in convertible debt, the company has agreed to a $130.3 million senior secured first lien credit facility, a $72.0 million senior secured second lien credit facility, and the sale of $18.0 million of senior secured third lien convertible notes,” the company announced. It said Silver Point Finance, LLC, the financing arm of Greenwich, Connecticut-based

Telco giant Verizon (VZ) squeezed $117.5 million and a lot of life out of Internet phone provider Vonage (VG) last year in a long patent war. Now it's trying to do the same thing to the cable industry. But that will be much harder to do: Not only are the cable guys in much stronger position financially than Vonage, they may now have legal precdent on their side.

That's because Verizon just lost a patent infringement case against Cox Communications, the third-largest U.S. cable provider. That won't be relevant to Comcast (CMCSA), which settled with Verizon to not sue each other about patents

Vonage met Wall Street's expectations for Q2 sales and lost two cents per share less than analysts predicted. But subscriber growth was disappointing.

Vonage (VG) has taken its foot off the gas pedal, and growth has slowed to a halt. The company added 2,000 net new subscribers during the quarter, below its expectations, and down from 57,000 new subscribers in Q2 2007.

To get there, Vonage had to sign up 231,000 gross subscribers -- meaning 229,000 subscribers left the service during the quarter.

We realize that Vonage has ratcheted down its growth rate on purpose over the last year to avoid im

Last week, Vonage (VG) named Cingular marketing executive Marc Lefar as its new CEO. Lefar had left Cingular in April 2007, just before the company was renamed AT&T Wireless and had been doing consulting work for his own firm, Marketing Insights, which doesn’t appear to have been all that active, other than for a few speeches. Or, maybe it was just in stealth form. Still, Vonage is paying handsomely for Lefar’s talents.

Yesterday, Vonage filed Lefar’s employment agreement and it shows that being CEO — even CEO of a struggling company — is better than hunting around for consulting work. In ad

Vonage (VG) this afternoon named Marc Lefar as CEO, replacing founder Jeff Citron, who becomes non-executive chairman and “a consultant on long-term strategy.”

Vonage said Lefar spent “more than four years” as chief marketing officer at Cingular Wireless; he then formed a consultancy called Marketing Insights.

In after hours trading, is up 9 cents, or 6.4%, to $1.50.