also SMartMoney on INTC -- very interesting --
Intel has been making modest inroads
into 3Com's hold on desktop Ethernet
adapter cards by reselling products from
MRV Communications (MRVC), but the
company must continue to keep the hubs
and switches it is selling at parity with the
competition. To that end, Intel also
announced new modules for its switches
that will incorporate Gigabit Ethernet, a
technology that can move bits between
computers at speeds of up to 2.5
gigabits per second. 3Com and the
others, meanwhile, will continue to build
more complex software into their
products, combining both gigabit
products and other technologies such as
ATM, along with sophisticated
application-specific integrated circuits to
keep ahead of Intel.
& even more exciting note the "Ditto MRV."
We expect to see more acquisitions like
the Chips buy, which give Intel the core
technology to fuel this integration, and
we'll take an extensive look at Intel's
shopping prospects in the near future. In
the meantime, with $5 billion in cash, no
one is counting out the possibility that
Intel may plunk down some serious
money for expertise in the networking
business. Likely candidates include
Cabletron Systems (CS), which with a
$2.5 billion market cap is one of the
cheaper networking plays. Ditto for MRV.
The recent agreement to manufacture a
chip Intel had no hand in developing,
ARM's StrongARM processor, is proof to
some that Intel will stop at nothing to
expand into new markets. As Ron
Jeffries, a longtime networking observer,
remarks, "The common reaction is to
count out Intel, which is dangerous.
They're huge, and they have so much
cash. All they need is to buy a few more
companies to get the networking
expertise they need."
smartmoney.com
Lastly a Smartmoney value screen:
smartmoney.com |
