Om Malik is hearing a new round of speculation that Vonage is looking raise another US$100 million in private equity. This would increase Vonage's financing tally to more than US$300-million. Using 8x8's 40,000 subscribers and $56.2 million market cap as a benchmark, Vonage is worth about US$850-million. Of course, it's impossible to place an accurate value on Vonage because there is no way of telling how much money the company is losing after all those marketing expenses. So how come Vonage is doing another private round rather than an IPO? For one, a private round means Vonage gets more time to "grow" the business without disclosing its financial results. In this market where revenue and profits are apparently back in vogue, Vonage may not have the proper balance sheet to meet today's IPO criteria. Of course, it also gives Vonage more time for a suitor (Sprint?) to step forward.

After being dismissed as simply a low-cost player, Huawei Technologies seems to be gaining serious street cred. Huawei received a huge boost when BT Group selected it as one of eight preferred vendors for a US$19-billion next-generation contract. Now, there is speculation (according to Lightreading) Huawei could pursue Marconi to beef up its technology portfolio and management bench strength. Marconi’s suddenly in flux after missing out on the BT deal – a major surprise given BT accounts for about 25% of Marconi’s annual sales. At current prices, Marconi's worth about US$1-billion.
It was one thing for the telecom sector to be worried about Huawei eating their lunch on price, it’s quite another when a global carrier such as BT picks Huawei’s technology to be a key part of its next-generation network. Armed with plenty of financial support from the Chinese government, Huawei has the ability to win business through vendor financing, and make large investments. If Nortel and Cisco were worried about Huawei before, they have more reason to be even more concerned.