Yes, 15 cents overage on the merge cost reserves. According to the CC, the overage was primarily a result of increases in severance pay - That is, they decided to be more rather than less generous.
For Europe, they mentioned some key client wins - Spain Telecom and France Telecom. They said that x2 modems are in the majority of European countries and in Asia. The international sales as a percent of total sales was mentioned, but I don't remember - something like 45% - sounds high but I think that was it. Regarding channel inventory, they couldn't provide a definitive answer overall, because on the international side they don't get data back frequently enough from the resellers over there to be able to bring all the numbers together. In the US, some product inventory is up in the channel, some is down.
I really couldn't get any new information out of the call. Eric is "very bullish" about the new Hypercard Total Control product, which he says offers a clear price-per-port advantage over anything in the marketplace, including Cisco's latest offering and "the TNT".
Personally, my take on the whole thing is just what earnings say: In line with estimates. No stunning coups yet, but no nasty surprises either. Eric mentioned CoreBuilder 7000 (4000, 5000?) anyway that whole range as being in strong demand; I believe the 7000 was labeled a "hot product" by Eric B.
Bottom line is, they believe they are making gains across virtually all the product segments where they want to make market share gains. Some products such as the old 3Com RAS products are being phased out. Eric B stated that all adapter card makers except Intel and Xircom "have diminished to irrelevance" as competitors to 3Com, and he believes that 3Com gained more share from Intel and Xircom in the latest 3 months, in addition to the market research by the independent groups supporting gains in the first six months of this year.
Glenn's buddy asked the last question in the Q&A session. Nothing earth-shaking, he just wanted a reiteration of what products showed sequential growth, and which ones may have been flat or saw sequential decreases in dollar terms. I am pretty sure I heard that Total Control was down sequentially, as were NICs on the client access side. The point is (IMO) why struggle with the details seqentially? It's the June-July-Aug time frame, a very slow period, particularly overseas, and yet there was 6 and 7% sequential growth.
DK |
