CMVT is "The wireless wonder-kid" says CBS MarketWatch.
cbs.marketwatch.com
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Wall St. Eavesdropper
Wireless arena promises growth
By Jeff Clabaugh, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 4:50 PM ET Jun 7, 2000 NewsWatch
The wireless wonder-kid
Investors have already figured out that the wireless arena is a key place to be for future growth. As a result, many of the big names have already been discovered. Here's one wireless play that may be just slightly off the main radar screen, and Business Week Online makes it sound like a solid play for investors looking for growth potential.
Business Week's Sam Jaffee profiles Comverse Technology (CMVT: news, msgs), which sells the software that wireless communications companies need to give us the extra bells and whistles we're getting used to having with our service. Comverse provides things like voice mail, speech recognition and Web page viewing software, and with nearly 1,000 companies around the world selling wireless service, that's a lot of customers or potential customers to be buying Comverse products.
Comverse just reported a 30 percent increase in revenue and a 54 percent jump in profits, and Jaffee quotes one analyst who says they've been increasing the rate of growth each quarter, which means they are making more and more money off the initial contracts as those contracts get older and older.
There's also what US Bancorp's Edward Jackson thinks is a strong punch. The growth of the company's order backlog. It grew 39 percent last quarter, and he tells Jaffee revenue and backlog growth are a powerful one-two punch.
The big competition is Lucent (LU: news, msgs), but Jaffee and Jackson say Comverse is the better of the two companies. Its product is superior and companies need reliability and serviceability.
In fact, Telecom Italia recently announced it was switching to Comverse from Lucent as a primary vendor.
Comverse has other businesses, including one that sells digital recording technology to law enforcement and intelligence services, but Jaffee says the heart of the company is, and will be, its enhanced services product which will continue to deliver breakaway growth. And he says as new options like e-mail, and Web content delivery becomes more common on cell phones, Comverse should be the one raking in the profits. See full story.
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