Dan and Susan are facing an important decision. After having discussed different financial scenarios, the two computer engineers felt it was time to finalize their cash flow projections and move to the next stage decide which of two possible projects they should undertake.

Both had a bachelor degree in engineering and had put in several years as maintenance engineers in a large chip manufacturing company. About six months ago, they were able to exercise their first stock options. That was when they decided to quit their safe, steady job and pursue their dreams of starting a venture of their own. In their spare time, almost as a hobby, they had been collaborating on some research into a new chip that could speed up certain specialized tasks by as much as 25%. At this point, the design of the chip was complete. While further experimentation might improve the performance of their design, any delay in entering the market now may prove to be costly, as one of the established players might introduce a similar product of their own. The duo knew that now was the time to act if at all.

They estimated that they would need to spend about $10,000,000 on plant, equipment and supplies. As for future cash flows, they felt that the right strategy at least for the first year would be to sell their product at dirt-cheap prices in order to induce customer acceptance. Then, once the product had established a name for itself, the price could be raised. By the end of the tenth year, their product in its current form was likely to be obsolete. However, the innovative approach that they had devised and patented could be sold to a larger chip manufacturer for a decent sum. Accordingly, the two budding entrepreneurs estimated the cash flows for this project (call it Project A) as follows:

Year	Project A Expected Cash flows ($)
0	(10,000,000)
1	890,000
2	1,400,000
3	2,100,000
4	2,300,000
5	1,900,000
6	3,200,000
7	3,700,000
8	2,600,000
9	2,750,000
10	4,500,000

An alternative to pursuing this project would be to immediately sell the patent for their innovative chip design to one of the established chip makers. They estimated that they would receive around $2,000,000 for this. It would probably not be reasonable to expect much more as neither their product nor their innovative approach had a track record.

They could then invest in some plant and equipment that would test silicon wafers for zircon content before the wafers were used to make chips. Too much zircon would affect the long-term performance of the chips. The task of checking the level of zircon was currently being performed by chip makers themselves. However, many of them, especially the smaller ones, did not have the capacity to permit 100% checking. Most tested only a sample of the wafers they received.

Dan and Susan were confident that they could persuade at least some of the chip makers to outsource this function to them. By exclusively specializing in this task, their little company would be able to slash costs by more than half, and thus allow the chip manufacturers to go in for 100% quality check for roughly the same cost as what they were incurring for a partial quality check today. The life of this project too (call it project B) is expected to be only about ten years.

The initial investment for this project is estimated at $ 11,000,000. After taking into account the sale of their patent, the net investment would be $9,000,000. As for the future, Dan and Susan were pretty sure that there would be sizable profits in the first couple of years. But thereafter, the zircon content problem would slowly start to disappear with advancing technology in the wafer industry. Keeping all this in mind, they estimate the cash flows for this project as follows:

Year	Project B Expected Cash flows ($)
0	($9,000,000)
1	3,000,000
2	2,500,000
3	2,300,000
4	2,000,000
5	1,600,000
6	1,300,000
7	1,200,000
8	1,000,000
9	750,000
10	690,000

Dan and Susan now need to make their decision. For purposes of analysis, they would like you to calculate their WACC based on 75% of the company being financed with preferred stock and 25% being financed with debt. The cost of preferred stock is 20% and the cost of debt is 8%. The firms tax rate is 38%.

Assignment:

Suppose that Dan and Susan have hired you as a consultant to help them make the decision. Please create an official presentation to present your findings and recommendations. The questions below should help to guide your insight.

In a 3-4 page report, please address the following questions. Please include your calculations in the appendix as the data analysis will not count toward your 3-4 page requirement.

1. An introduction to the case. What is your task?