Ian, this company has a lot of bases covered. I would get the
investor's packet for a complete description.
Overall, they tend to beat others to market, even larger companies.
The Megaswitch II is the latest in Fast Ethernet (100MB) switches. The standard for Fast Ethernet was approved only fairly recently. Corporations are making mass upgrades from 10 to 100 MB Ethernet due to the growth of Inter/Intra-nets. It is fairly easy for corporations to upgrade from a 10M to 100M switch, and not change cabling. This has been a big driver to growth.
Another "new" area MRVC is focusing on is laser fiber-optic transceivers, which presumably suit a number of needs including backbone/WAN inter-connectivity. In fact, among networking companies I believe MRVC is unique in providing products in this area. I personally believe the combination of switching and fiber-optic in the hands of one company like MRVC could yield some hellish switching products with hellish profit margins.
The biggest news recently is MRVCs introduction of a real (not prototype, or fiber) Gig Ether switch. This would seem to be well ahead of the competition. Gig Ether (1000M) is the next step from 100M Ether...in many cases existing cabling may be used. And, if I recall correctly from an announcement, there will also be "ATM Uplink" products associated with the Gig Ether, presumably to support WANs with ATM backboning..
Earnings growth has been strong, and should be sustainable given MRVCs time-to-market with new products. Further, Intel sells the MRVC switch, and recently Fujitsu (2nd largest computer/office company in the world, in revenue) announced likewise.
Dan |
