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Technology Stocks : COM21 (CMTO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Harker who wrote (651)	6/24/1999 5:04:00 PM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2347

From Wall Street Journal Online: <<< June 24, 1999 Dow Jones Newswires Com21 Dn 23%; Analyst: Co. Not Chosen For Certification NEW YORK -- Shares of Com21 Inc. (CMTO) plummeted 25% Thursday, after investors noticed the company wasn't included on a list of modem suppliers selected for certification by a cable service industry consortium. The consortium, Cable Television Laboratories Inc., or CableLabs, released the list earlier, naming Askey Computer Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), Philips Electronics Ltd., Samsung Information Systems of America, and Sony Corp. (SNE) as companies whose cable modems have been certified for retail sale. CableLabs' certification carries a sort of industry seal of approval, by notifying consumers and cable operators that the cable modems comply with the consortium's own set of interface specifications and that the modems will interoperate with qualified cable system headends that haven't been deployed yet. Joel Achramowicz, an analyst at Preferred Capital Markets, said Com21's stock price probably fell because the company didn't gain certification for its Data over Cable Services Interface Specification, or DOCSIS, modems. The benefit of DOCSIS modems is that the standard allows for interoperability in providing high-speed Internet access through cable lines. "Investors have overdone the critical fundamental importance of this certification," he said. Certification "will be important inevitably in the future...(however) it is not a critical component for the build-out of most cable modems" now because most cable modems are in the early stages and aren't DOCSIS certified. Achramowicz said that he didn't know why certain companies are certified and others aren't, and asserted that CableLabs hasn't outlined specifications required for certification. The analyst said he thinks Com21 is a good stock, "but from a trading perspective, the market is punishing the stock because of CableLabs' announcement." Com21 representatives declined to comment. Shares of Com21 recently traded at 15 5/16, down 23.4%, on volume of 8.2 million shares, compared with average volume of 697,312 shares. Earlier, the stock hit an intraday low of 12 3/4. -Beth M. Mantz (201) 938-5393 >>>>>