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Technology Stocks : JDS Uniphase (JDSU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kent Rattey who wrote (653)	7/27/1999 6:57:00 PM
From: LBstocks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24042

My recollection from listening to the conference call is that the equity offering will price tonight (presumably at the closing price) for trading tomorrow.

To: Kent Rattey who wrote (653)	7/28/1999 7:20:00 AM
From: Glenn McDougall	Respond to of 24042

Tech giant beats consensus earnings James Bagnall The Ottawa Citizen Nortel Networks Corp. yesterday went a long way toward dispelling concern that some of its core growth engines are starting to slow. The communications technology giant posted a net profit (adjusted for the impact of acquisitions) of $368 million for its second quarter ended June 30 -- up a very healthy 74 per cent compared with the year-earlier period. Earnings per share, diluted by a series of acquisitions, were 55 cents -- ahead a comparatively modest 37 per cent. Even so, they were five cents a share ahead of the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. Nortel reports in U.S. dollars. This result emerged from higher-than-expected sales growth. Nortel's second-quarter revenues jumped 30 per cent year-over-year to $5.41 billion, easily outmatching the 22-per-cent growth announced last week by its archrival, Lucent Technologies Inc. of New Jersey. "The fundamentals are in well in place for continued momentum this year and into next year," Nortel chief executive John Roth said during a telephone conference call with financial analysts. "We're feeling good about the progress we've made." Analysts have been carefully monitoring the health of Nortel's wireless and enterprise networking units, which reported relatively weak results in the previous two quarters. However, the wireless product line rebounded strongly in the second quarter, with sales rising nearly 20 per cent compared with the year-ago period. Mr. Roth pointed to $3 billion worth of new orders for wireless products so far this year as evidence of Nortel's ability to meet its original projections for growth in this sector -- 13 to 15 per cent for the year. The enterprise unit, which includes most of Bay Networks Inc. -- the California-based data networking firm acquired by Nortel last summer -- is doing little more than treading water. Mr. Roth said sales are rising "in the single digits" year-over-year after adjusting for the impact of the Bay purchase (i.e., assuming Bay had always been part of Nortel). Nortel's hottest unit, once more, is its fibre-optic group, which reported year-over-year sales increases in excess of 50 per cent. Furthermore, Mr. Roth said, this torrid pace will continue "for several more quarters." This is also good news for JDS Uniphase Corp., the Nepean-based manufacturer of fibre-optic components. JDS Uniphase revealed earlier this week that Nortel is its second-largest customer, accounting for more than 10 per cent of its quarterly sales. Mr. Roth yesterday put an end to rumours that Nortel was engaged in talks to sell one of its fibre-optic businesses to JDS Uniphase. "We haven't talked," he said. However, during an interview with the Citizen, he floated a more interesting notion. When asked whether Nortel had given any thought to spinning out its high-flying fibre-optic group as an independent entity, Mr. Roth replied, "That's an interesting idea." He declined to elaborate. Overall, Nortel said it still expects to hit the sales and earnings targets it offered analysts early in the year. In other words, its 1999 revenues will come in somewhere between $21.5 billion and $22 billion -- compared with $17.6 billion last year -- and earnings will grow roughly 20 per cent. Assuming the wireless business holds up, one of the few events that could still derail the Nortel express would be a rapid decline in spending by corporations on regular networking gear in favor of last-minute Y2K preparations. Mr. Roth said "we feel a lot better about Y2K" than a few months ago. Nortel's saving grace for now is that less than a quarter of its total revenues rely on sales to corporations -- the customers considered most likely to change their spending patterns to reflect Y2K fears. The rest of Nortel's business depends on equipment and software sales to the large telephone carriers and Internet service providers. And these firms aren't as affected by Y2K issues.