VINA: Supercharging the Telecom Infrastructure

No doubt, the telecom equipment market has been hot. And, of course, there
have been plenty IPOs in the space. The latest is
VINA
Technologies. Expect it to be strong, as well.

VINA has a top-notch management team. The CEO, Steven Bauman, was a
principal at GeoPartners Research and vice president of virtual private
networks at 3Com. The executive vice president, Gaymond Schultz, was vice
president of engineering and a founder of StrataCom. T. Diane Pewitt, the
vice president of operations, was the vice president of messaging for
Lucent. Then there is Philip Quicley, a director, who was the CEO of Pacific
Telesis.

VINA develops so-called multiservice broadband access services. That is,
the technology can deliver multiple voice and data services over a single
high-speed line. By combining the services, there are usually cost
reductions. Also, there are more revenue opportunities for telecom service
providers. No surprise, VINA has signed deals with strong OEM partners, such
as Lucent, PairGain, and Gabriel Communications.

VINA introduced its first product in 1997, called the T1 Integrator and
shortly thereafter, the HDSL Integrator. These were the first products for
multiservice broadband access. Then, in May 1999, the company launched the
Multiservice Xchange, which not only provides comprehensive multiservice
broadband access, but also makes it easy to migrate from circuit-based
networks to packet-based networks.

For the first six months of 2000, revenues reached $12.1 million, which was
a 112.5% increase from the same period last year. But there are losses:
$19.5 million for this year.

But the fact remains that the company has a cutting-edge technology. What’s
more, the company is expected to introduce another product, which looks very
promising. All in all, expect VINA to be a red hot IPO for this week.

The lead underwriter is Lehman Brothers and the price range is $12-$14 (with
5 million shares to be issued). The proposed ticker symbol is VINA.