Evaluating Vonage ahead of its IPO!

Last updated on: February 22, 2006 at 6:02 am By Desh Kapoor

Here is an interesting analysis of Vonage - the VoIP pioneer!The 5 Keys To Estimating NPV Customer NPV models generally have 5 key pieces of data. Below I have identified each piece of data and described what, if any data is available from Vonage.Net acquisition costs per customer. Acquisition costs are probably the most important part of an NPV model. In the S1, Vonage claims that its marketing cost per customer in Q3 05 was $209. This is a bit understated though because this figure does not include the costs associated with deploying customer premise equipment (ATAs) which appear as "Direct Cost of Goods Sold" in the financials. These costs in turn are somewhat offset by "Customer Equipment and Shipping" revenue. Including these additional figures results in a line acquisition cost of $233.24, which is further reduced to $203.25 by the activation fee of $29.99. The actual cost is probably a bit higher because Vonage accounts for cash incentives and rebates as a contra against revenue, but these costs don't appear to be highly significant right now so I am going to go with a $203.25 cost in my model. Read more

Growth Sectors in Indian Stock Market

Last updated on: February 22, 2006 at 5:53 am By Desh Kapoor

Despite the phenomenal rise of the Indian stock market - there are still some sectors which are probably still set for more growth.. ET takes a shot at these few..Banking:The Indian banking industry is on the threshold of change. Its highly fragmented nature will be completely transformed. Consolidation will be the order of the day. Even the government has stated its intention to encourage mergers and acquisitions in this industry in order to make it globally competitive. This would lead to the re-rating of several stocks of both public and private sectors banks. Read more

Saving Traditional Indian Knowledge

Last updated on: February 22, 2006 at 5:48 am By Desh Kapoor

There is a bounty of age-old knowledge and information on various herbs as well as things like yoga. People and businessmen in the west keep usurping them as their own! It is our prerogative to save their copyright! This is an interesting post on this issue!In 2004, US patent office granted a patent on a sequence of 26 asanas to an Indian-American yoga practitioner. You might wonder or express disbelief. How could anyone claim ownership over a 5,000-year-old tradition? But, unfortunately that is the state of affairs in the world today.Actually this is not a single such case. For example, 80% of 5,000 patents on plant-based formulations granted by the US in 2000 were of Indian origin. This is only in the category of medicine and there is more to the list if we take into account of other cultural products such as food, architecture and other oral knowledge passed down from our ancestors. Read more

General Insurance grows by 15.4%

Last updated on: February 22, 2006 at 5:42 am By Desh Kapoor

Insurance is a high growth industry in India ever since the Private sector has entered! Here is the story of an amazing growth rate!Led by private players, the general insurance industry grew by 15.4% till December this fiscal. Despite sluggish growth of PSU non-life insurers, the 12 players collected Rs 15,091 crore in April-December this fiscal against Rs 13,078 crore a year ago, up 15.4%, according to data by Irda. State-owned New India Assurance was at the top, up 12.7% to collect Rs 3,471 crore in premium and a market pie of 23%. Delhi-based Oriental Insurance was at No 2, logging 13.4% growth in premium income at Rs 2,626 crore, cornering 17.4% of market. National Insurance saw business fall by 7.3% to mop up Rs 2,625 crore. Another PSU insurer United India saw a flat growth to collect Rs 2,358 crore and a market share of 15.6%. In the private space, ICICI Lombard grew 88% to collect Rs 1,222 crore and was the top private player, followed by Bajaj Allianz which grew by 58% to pocket Rs 963 crore. Read more

Average Intelligence

Last updated on: February 20, 2006 at 10:12 pm By Desh Kapoor

There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence. Read more

Children

Last updated on: February 20, 2006 at 10:12 pm By Desh Kapoor

You know that children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers. Read more

Desk and Mind

Last updated on: February 20, 2006 at 10:10 pm By Desh Kapoor

If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk? Read more

Mob

Last updated on: February 20, 2006 at 10:07 pm By Desh Kapoor

There are no wise few. Every aristocracy that has ever existed has behaved, in all essential points, exactly like a small mob. Read more

Lecture

Last updated on: February 20, 2006 at 10:05 pm By Desh Kapoor

I never lecture, not because I am shy or a bad speaker, but simply because I detest the sort of people who go to lectures and don't want to meet them. Read more

Life

Last updated on: February 20, 2006 at 10:04 pm By Desh Kapoor

If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead. Read more