Vonage has appointed Marc Lefar as its CEO, replacing interim CEO Jeffrey Citron, who will continue to serve with the company as chairman of its board.
Meanwhile, Vonage entered into a commitment letter to raise up to $215 million in a private debt refinancing. The company will use those proceeds, along with some cash on hand, to repay its existing debt, which could come due on Dec. 16.
The company also this week unveiled its Vonage Pro bundled service, which will allow users to stay connected whether using their main phone or via their PC using Vonage’s SoftPhone client, called Vonage Companion. Among other features, Vonage Pro includes 25 Vonage Visual Voicemail messages – transcriptions of voicemails sent to a user’s e-mail or cell phone.
New CEO Lefar most recently founded a consulting company called Marketing Insights, but before that had been chief marketing officer of Cingular Wireless (now AT&T Mobility) for more than four years.
Prior to joining Cingular, Lefar was executive vice president of marketing and value-added services at Cable & Wireless Global. He also held senior leadership roles at Verizon Wireless and GTE Wireless. Lefar started his career at Procter & Gamble.
More Broadband Direct:
• Comcast’s Q2 profit increases by 8%
• Comcast, NetZero sign on to anti-child porn plan
• TWC launches PowerBoost in N. Texas
• Qwest promotes Richards to COO
• Ixia partners up with QualiSystems, Apcon
• Report: Online viewing finding an audience
• TiVo debuts ad viewership data