Steve - Re: "Would you buy CSCO now? If so, why? "
If you had a 2 or 3 year investment time frame, I'd say Cisco is an excellent choice. It may suffer ups and downs due to market conditions, economic cycles, etc., but long haul, it is the BIG WINNER in networking.
Re: "Are any of the other network stocks appealing? "
I own MRV Communication (MRVC), Xylan (Xyln) and Ciena (Cien). These have all been battered over the past 3, 6 and 9 months but they are fundamentally sound companies.
Ciena is the most intriguing having a unique product (DWDM - Dense WaveLength Division Multiplexing) and so does not compete with the Cisco, 3COM, Bay, etc networking crowd. It's new products permit the transmission of 40 data sets down an optical fibre, providing a 40x increase in capacity with EXISTING fibre cables. Quite a bargain!
Ciena serves the telecommunications industry (WorldCOM, A T & T) as well as the data networking companies. Thus, it has great potential all around.
Lucent has a competing product.
Paul |
