Welcome to the major leagues of debt. Collateralized debt obligations, almost always referred to as a CDOs, are horrendously complicated deals that often leave anyone without a MBA wondering what was put into these CDOs.

The first thing to understand about bonds, (aka debt) is that bonds are often backed by something else. Think about your home mortgage. If you don't pay your mortgage, the bank can take the house. You end up homeless, and the bank sells the house to pay off the rest of that mortgage. There is something "backing" that mortgage; something lender can fall back on, if you don't pay your bills like a good human being. That's called collateral.

CDOs are one flavor of an entire sector of investing called structured finance, and they are also backed. CDOs, in the simplest concept, are just bonds backed by something else. In most cases, a CDO is backed by a collection of various types of debt. CDOs can be home mortgages, or other types of debt like credit cards, auto loans, and personal loans. Most of these types of debt are usually considered a bit more risky and they don't have the backing that a home loan does. So, if you think it through, you can imagine that CDOs are usually considered a risky investment.

To take a step further, understand that CDOs have multiple flavors within each CDO. These flavors are called tranches. If you've taken French, you might recognize the word, it means "slice" or "portion." Each slice of that CDO you invest in is a little different and carries different amounts of risk.

You could invest in the lowest risk tranche of the CDO, which would provide you lower risk. But, you don't get a good return on that investment. Or, you can be the heroic adventurer of bonds and invest in the lowest-grade tranche of the CDO. You'll make an amazing return, but if the economy even looks at you wrong, you might lose the entire investment.

CDOs aren¿t easy, and are almost always invested in by mutual funds, insurance companies and hedge funds. As an individual investor, you will probably not come across a CDO you can participate in.

Home / Markets / Industries / Telecom

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Infonetics Research: Carriers name Acme Packet, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and Sonus top VoIP vendors

Email this Story | Respond to Editor | Print

Comtex

CAMPBELL, CA, Jul 23, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) ----A new study by Infonetics Research that provides a broad view of service provider thinking and plans for voice over IP, including service provider perceptions of leading VoIP vendors, names Acme Packet, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, and Sonus as the "top VoIP equipment manufacturers," with Cisco emerging as the most familiar manufacturer.

According to the study, Service Provider Plans for VoIP, which surveyed service providers in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America-Caribbean, the top 3 technical challenges these carriers face are competition, migration to IMS, and capex reduction.

"Service providers are operating in a capped capex environment now -- meaning, generally they purchase equipment only when they need it. There are some areas in which most carriers are increasing their capex, though: growth areas tied to additional revenue, such as VoIP," said Stephane Teral, principal analyst at Infonetics for service provider VoIP, IMS, and mobile infrastructure.

The study is based on formal interviews conducted by Infonetics' senior analysts with incumbents, IXCs, competitive operators, vertically integrated service providers, and specialists. The 85-page study examines the trends, drivers, barriers, and implementation plans of VoIP service providers, and features VoIP network architecture plans, a VoIP vendor scorecard, and service provider feature wish-lists for VoIP products, including trunk media gateways, softswitches, voice application servers, media servers, and session border controllers.

Other highlights from the study:

 -- 40% of respondent service providers don't
   plan to complete their migration to Class 4/tandem switching until after 2009, suggesting they have enough capacity to handle
   international voice traffic growth -- The top retail VoIP service offered by service providers to their residential and business
   customers is voice over broadband -- In a series of questions asking service providers to rate Alcatel- Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson,
   Huawei, Nokia Siemens, Nortel, and Sonus, those familiar with the vendors rated Sonus highest for technology, product roadmap,
   security, management, and price-to-performance ratio -- 55% of respondents have already installed Acme Packet's session border
   controllers

Download study highlights from Infonetics' online portal at www.infonetics.com (see Service Provider VoIP and IMS area). For sales, contact Larry Howard, vice president, at larry@infonetics.com or +1 (408) 583-3335.

Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com) is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan, strategize, and compete more effectively.

 Press Contact Stéphane Téral Principal Analyst,
   Service Provider VoIP, IMS, and Mobile Infrastructure Infonetics Research +1 408.583.3371 Email Contact

SOURCE: Infonetics Research

http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct?id=C723BF35CF25D123

Copyright 2008 Market Wire, All
   rights reserved. ********************************************************************** As of Saturday, 07-19-2008 23:59,
   the latest Comtex SmarTrend� Alert, an automated pattern recognition system, indicated a DOWNTREND on 06-11-2008 for ALU @
   $6.71. As of Saturday, 07-19-2008 23:59, the latest Comtex SmarTrend Alert, an automated pattern recognition system, indicated
   a DOWNTREND on 06-24-2008 for APKT @ $8.17. For more information on SmarTrend, contact your market data provider or go to
   www.mysmartrend.com SmarTrend is a registered trademark of Comtex News Network, Inc. Copyright � 2004-2008 Comtex News Network,
   Inc. All rights reserved.