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Technology Stocks : Lucent Technologies (LU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Phoenix who wrote (9329)	8/29/1999 9:15:00 AM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 21876

Gary, you ask: doyou think CSCO's vertical extension (with the Cerent, Monterrey acquisitions) are a bad thing??? The answer is no. The article implies that vertical integration is not a profitable thing. I see a future where Cisco, Lucent and Nortel are competing in all areas of converged networking. I believe Cisco's experience in IP will benefit it in optical networking. kep

To: The Phoenix who wrote (9329)	8/29/1999 10:16:00 AM
From: Techplayer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 21876

Gary, I agree that enterprise spending will continue to grow, though at reducing margins. Perhaps this is one forward looking reason for CSCO's embracing, as Mr. Fun noted, a product for the old world infrastructure. CSCO will need to extend themselves but not to the extent of LU, imo. LU started existence with so much legacy infrastructure that its present growth method was really the only choice. CSCO has retained a tightly run ship from the beginning and has the ability to chose which path to follow. Cerent seems to be a very expensive purchase at this time if in fact LU and NT will be announcing similar products and already have the customers. CSCO does need to approach this market though and perhaps this acquisition was the best available at this time. Are there others companies that may hav emade more sense for CSCO at this time? Do you feel, for instance that the upside to CSCO is greater with a Cerent acquisition versus a tlab acq.? I am curious about this as i never thought that I would see the day where CSCO paid 7 billion for a company with 10 million in sales that is going after the "old world" that CSCO has dismissed for so long. Thanks in advance for your opinions. Brian