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Technology Stocks : Computer Network Technology (CMNT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carl R. who wrote (648)	9/30/1999 1:02:00 AM
From: Sultan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 750

I don't really follow them but I will look them up. Now and again when I see a stock that for some reason is interesting (low market cap compared to peers, or some disappointment resulting in pressure on share price etc.) I just book-mark the thread and forget about it.. Some times I don't even check (too many threads book marked)... To-day, I just stumble on it again... In any case, will check them out...

To: Carl R. who wrote (648)	9/30/1999 1:34:00 AM
From: Lance Bredvold	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 750

"Do you have any ideas what is wrong?" Your question was not directed to me, but presents too good an opportunity to pass up. As one who bought at $1.25, I suggest that not much is wrong at all. Yet this company probably has taken a long time in fulfilling my hopes in the beginning. I believe they were formed primarily as a result of the creative genius of Greg (?) Misukanis who had developed his channel link ideas over at Network Systems (also in Minneapolis). After a lot of promise, they just never seemed to be able to keep growing and eventually decided the market they were in would never be big enough--they pretty much dominated it. They tried buying other companies and products which never seemed to pan out and used up the earnings from the channel link line. And finally the board took over, debated whether to try to sell it off, play an end game strategy, or try to build anew. 2 years or so ago they hired a new president from IBM (Tom Hudson) and formulated a vision which included the newest buzz words--SAN and EIA. They have built a new building which houses offices and manufacturing and research and all their other functions--the administrative offices used to be quite far from the production facility (but both in suburbs of Mpls). Promises of sales growth and margin improvements were made and it has looked pretty good--so good, in fact, that the story got hyped and the price went up far above anything I would have considered reasonable. Last quarter those who had priced it assuming huge earnings gains were given an earnings warning about seven days before the scheduled 2nd quarter earnings announcement suggesting that some anticipated orders would not be recognized until next quarter, and so eps would be less than many analysts had been suggesting. Since the growth record of sales and earnings since the new administration is so short, one misstep threw into question the validity of the whole strategy. And now as we approach another earnings report, fear is dominant. I haven't heard any particularly bad news. And the actual reported earnings last quarter were pretty good from my point of view even if poor compared to the .11 predicted by the street. Hope that answered a few of the questions you were thinking about. I bought in 1988 and have added and sold several times, but always held some CMNT since. And I bought a bit more today. It has been my second largest holding at times and today is about the 5th largest. I look forward to a vigorous and sincere examination of this company if anyone is so inclined. I am fairly strong in the history, but weak as far as the technology and markets are concerned. I attended the annual meeting in 98, but not this year. Sincerely, Lance