The Wall Street Journal-20080205-O-Leary to Leave Vonage

Return to: The_Wall_Street_Journal-20080205

O'Leary to Leave Vonage

Full Text (224  words)

Vonage Holdings Corp. said Sharon O'Leary, the company's chief legal officer, will leave at the end of the first quarter.

Ms. O'Leary's departure comes after Vonage's recent patent settlements with other telecom companies.

In January, Vonage and Nortel Networks Corp. settled their patent litigation, allowing for cross-licensing of each other's technology. Last year, Vonage, of Holmdel, N.J., agreed to settle four other patent suits and, in each case, promised to pay the other side for prior use of its products. Vonage recently agreed to pay AT&T Inc. $39 million as part of a settlement. Vonage also has said it will pay Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. a total of $200 million to settle lawsuits.

Despite having settled all of its legal battles, Vonage faces many challenges as cable companies roll out their own digital-phone services and consumers increasingly opt for cellphones in place of land lines.

Ms. O'Leary joined Vonage in August 2005 and helped take the company public in May 2006.

"Sharon was our first general counsel, and she developed a first- class legal and regulatory team. Sharon also helped guide legal strategy during a particularly challenging period for Vonage," said interim Chief Executive Jeffrey Citron.

Vonage also said Mike Sears has been appointed senior vice president of global service-delivery operations, the customer-facing organization that is responsible for all customer contacts.