Ring Tones' Mixed Signals

The ringtone buzz seems to have died down lately and TheStreet.com writes that "a recent downgrade of VeriSign based on poor performance from its ring tone division seems to signal that the trendy sector is clamming up faster than expected." Or at least Verisign efforts as others are still profiting from the personalization fad.

American Technology Research analyst Albert Lin in a recent research note wrote, "Dropping Jamba/Jamster would boost the company's fortunes. No matter what the means (divestiture, spinout, shutdown, etc.), we believe getting out of the ring tone business would be a positive move and we would reconsider our stock opinion. Boot Jamba/Jamster or boot the stock is our bottom-line assessment."

Jeffries & Company analyst Katherine Egbert remarking on the "uncertainty around Jamba," said, "It is difficult to know how fast or how far this business declines in 2006."