MOST NOTEWORTHY: Seaspan, Vodafone, Telefonica and 8x8 Inc. were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Jefferies believes shares of Seaspan (NYSE: SSW) are attractively valued at current levels given the company's large modern fleet of containerships and "excellent" earnings and cash flow visibility; shares were initiated with a Buy rating and $33 target.
  
• Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) were assumed with Outperform ratings at Bernstein, as they believe their mobile growth will be stronger than expected.
  
• Kaufman Bros. believes 8x8 Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT) is on the cusp of posting sustainable profitability and could be an attractive acquisition candidate. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $2 target.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Goldman initiated Ford (NYSE: F) with a Neutral rating.
  
• Sensient Tech (NYSE: SXT) was started withan Outperform rating and $36 target at Oppenheimer.
  
• Friedman Billings assumed Prudential FInancial (NYSE: PRU) with a Market perform rating and $86 target.

When companies discontinue operations it's one thing, but when a company ceases operations without warning its customers something is fishy. When SunRocket did just this, red flags appeared in my head. Companies don't just close their doors one days for no reason, but it appears that SunRocket did just this:

"At the company's Tysons Corner headquarters, the phones went unanswered, the doors were locked and a cardboard sign with "Out of Business" scribbled on it hung inside the glass front door."

Obviously consumers who used the company's services were out of luck for the day, but it didn't stop there. In fact, many of these consumers paid for their services well in advance.

Although this seems like an isolated event, it casts further doubt on the entire VoIP industry. As a result, the primary VoIP provider in America, Vonage (NYSE: VG) is likely to lose some (more?) credibility. That being said, for many consumers the benefits VoIP offers over traditional phonelines are powerful enough to let them "roll the dice" once again. Some followers of this space who I spoke to are going as far as to say this could help Vonage because they will gain some of SunRocket's business, but I'm not sure about that and the impact wouldn't be significant because SunRocket's total customer base was about 10% of Vonage's current customer base.

However, if 8x8 (NASDAQ: EGHT) could pick up SunRocket's accounts, the stock would most certainly fly because of its small size - $82 million - and 8.7 short ratio.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: SanDisk (SNDK), Lear (LEA) and Sunoco, Inc (SUN) were today's most notable upgrades:

• SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) was upgraded at Goldman Sachs to Buy from Neutral because they expect an improved NAND pricing environment.
• Baird upgraded Lear Corp. (NYSE:LEA) to Neutral from Underperform, with a $36 target, following the buyout offer from Carl Icahn's American Real Estate Partners LP for $36 a share.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of Sunoco, Inc (NYSE:SUN) to Buy from Hold due to better-than-expected demand as well as rising East Coast margins.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Merriman upgraded 8x8, Inc (NASDAQ:EGHT) to Buy from Neutral. The firm believes that by focusing on the SOHO VoIP market, 8x8, Inc has formed a solid revenue base from which to grow; the broker also finds shares undervalued.
• Wachovia upgraded shares of Parkway Properties, Inc. (NYSE:PKY) to Outperform from Market Perform based on relative valuations, as opposed to Highwoods Properties (HIW), which was downgraded today.
• Stifel took RealNetworks, Inc. (NASDAQ:RNWK) up to Hold from Sell on valuation.
  
• Goldman reinstated Catalina Marketing Corp. (NYSE:POS) with a Neutral, up from its previous Sell rating.
• American Technology added Silicon Image, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIMG) to its Focus List, as the firm believes its recent weakness provides investors with a buying opportunity.
• Matrix US upgraded MapInfo Corp. (NASDAQ:MAPS) to Hold from Sell based on valuation.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).