Webmasters.com has developed a powerful new server that would be used for corporations’ Internet activities. It would cost $10 million at Year 0 to buy the equipment necessary to manufacture the server. The project would require net working capital at the beginning of each year in an amount equal to 10% of the year's projected sales; for example, NWC0 = 10%(Sales1). The servers would sell for $24,000 per unit, and Webmasters believes that variable costs would amount to $17,500 per unit. After Year 1, the sales price and variable costs will increase at the inflation rate of 3%. The company’s nonvariable costs would be $1 million at Year 1 and would increase with inflation.
The server project would have a life of 4 years. If the project is undertaken, it must be continued for the entire 4 years. Also, the project's returns are expected to be highly correlated with returns on the firm's other assets. The firm believes it could sell 1,000 units per year.
The equipment would be depreciated over a 5-year period, using MACRS rates. The estimated market value of the equipment at the end of the project’s 4-year life is $500,000. Webmasters’ federal-plus-state tax rate is 40% and its overall weighted average cost of capital is 10%. Perform sensitivity analysis on the unit sales, salvage value, and cost of capital for the project. Assume that each of these variables can vary from its base case, or expected, value by plus and minus 10, 20, and 30 percent. Include a sensitivity diagram, and discuss the results.
