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Technology Stocks : International FiberCom, Inc. (NASDAQ- IFCI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockycd who wrote (2553)	6/23/1999 8:14:00 AM
From: MskiHntr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3541

From Dow Jones News Service: Symbol(s) IFCI & Date 06/23 8:05A (DJ) =DJ International FiberCom To Help AT&T Upgrade Cable System Story 1364 (IFC, IFCI, ATAT-D, T, LMG'A, LMG'B, I/BRD, I/CAB, I/CBL...) By Shawn Young NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--International FiberCom Inc. (IFCI) has a contract to design and build improvements to the cable system AT&T Corp. (T) will use to provide combined phone, Internet and cable service in Denver and San Francisco. The five-year-old company, which already lists AT&T as a customer, plans to use the contract to expand its relationship with the New York phone giant. AT&T is pushing very hard to ready its cable TV networks to provide high-capacity two-way service over the next two years. "This is a tremendous breakthrough for us," Chairman and Chief Executive Joseph P. Nealy told Dow Jones Newswires. The company, based in Phoenix, designs, builds and maintains fiber-optic and other cable and communications systems. It also has a unit that specializes in bringing wireless signals into tunnels and other enclosed areas. Nealy wouldn't disclose the dollar value of the contract with AT&T, but he said he is confident the company will meet analysts' expectations for revenue of $180 million and operating profit of 60 cents a share in 1999. He said he also expects the company to meet expectations of a profit of 81 cents in 2000. Otis Bradley, an analyst at Gilford Securities Inc., estimates that the company will bring in about $360 million in revenue and earn about 85 cents a share in 2000. Including an acquisition-related charge of $890,000, or 2 cents a share after taxes, International Fibercom earned $11.4 million, or 43 cents a share, on revenue of nearly $105 million in 1998. The company has grown in part through a series of acquisitions and it expects more over the next two years or so, Nealy said. "We would like to go where AT&T has a presence," he said, an aim that will surely mean making acquisitions in some markets to gain the needed people and skills. This commitment is one of the things AT&T likes about International Fibercom, said Britt Baugh, AT&T's director of network implementation for the West Coast. AT&T needs to move very fast if it is to meet its goals, he said. "We want to get companies in here that are strong and growth-oriented," Baugh said. AT&T has confidence, he said, that International Fiber can meet its targets and function effectively as an acquirer of resources it needs. A contract like the one AT&T has struck with International Fiber helps get the network upgrade done right, Baugh said, since the company will have to build what it designs. AT&T, he said, will maintain strict oversight over International Fiber and other contractors. For International Fibercom, which offers a range of engineering, design and construction services, the in-house resources of its clients can be a major competitor, said Gilford Securities analyst Otis Bradley. But for AT&T, it wouldn't make sense to hire all the people it needs to accomplish everything it needs to do with the cable networks over the next few years, Baugh said. International FiberCom hopes many of its clients increasingly see outsourcing as the best way to accomplish network design, installation and maintenance tasks. The company's other clients include most of the Baby Bells, major cable companies such as Time Warner Inc. (TWX) and Cox Communications Inc. (COX), long-distance upstarts like Level 3 Communications Inc. (LVLT) and several competitive local phone and data carriers. International FiberCom is expected to formally announce its Denver and San Francisco contract with AT&T later Wednesday. - Shawn Young; 201-938-5248; shawn.young@dowjones.com (END) DOW JONES NEWS 06-23-99 08:05 AM