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Strategies & Market Trends : The Thread Formerly Known as No Rest For The Wicked -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kathyh who wrote (65022)	10/9/1999 2:36:00 PM
From: Tim Luke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90042

i'll see if i can find it.

To: kathyh who wrote (65022)	10/9/1999 2:43:00 PM
From: Tim Luke	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 90042

more power for CS!!!!!! . . . . .. Saturday October 9, 11:54 am Eastern Time TELECOMS-Ciena sees itself as a buyer, not a takeover By Jessica Hall GENEVA, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Telecommunications equipment maker Ciena Corp. (NasdaqNM:CIEN - news), often rumored as a potential acquisition target, said it sees itself more as a buyer of smaller companies than as takeover candidate. Since Ciena's planned merger with rival Tellabs (NasdaqNM:TLAB - news) fell apart last year, Linthicum, Maryland-based Ciena has been seen as a prime acquisition candidate by companies such as France's Alcatel (NYSE:ALA - news) or Cisco Systems . Ciena's Chief Executive Patrick Nettles, however, sees a takeover of Ciena as unlikely. ''If they have a big enough checkbook, then it's always for sale but I don't think that's an opportunity that we're going looking for,'' Nettles said in an interview on Saturday at the Telecom 99 industry trade show in Geneva. ''We've demonstrated that we would be open to a transaction, but we don't see that as highly likely. We're far enough along that we have an established channel, we have franchise and that's probably more valuable as an acquirer than an acquiree,'' Nettles said. Ciena recently agreed to buy smaller companies such as Lightera Networks and Omnia Communications, and it may be open to other deals in the future, Nettles said. ''There are a number of good companies that have had venture capital poured into them that have good products but no distribution channels. If they have products that fit our distribution channel, that might be an interesting thing for us to consider but we don't feel that we have any big gaps that we have to fill,'' Nettles said. Ciena, known for making products that expand the capacity of fiber optic communications networks, currently is focusing on products that can help phone companies reduce their network operating costs. Ciena plans to market products that allow carriers to run and maintain their networks remotely, instead of using workers to do the same tasks. Ciena sees huge demand for these products, which could help phone companies cut costs, improve service times and boost profit margins. ''Network costs are going to have a big impact on how the suppliers compete and how the carriers compete. It will determine who the winners and losers are,'' Nettles said. Ciena's main new product in this area, Core Director, will be field-tested in early 2000 and commercially available by mid-year 2000. In addition to expanding its product portfolio, Ciena also has worked to expand its customer base so it is less dependant on major clients such as long-distance telephone company Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON - news) Ciena now has about 25 to 30 customers, Nettles said. Nettles said he does not expects Sprint's planned acquisition by MCI WorldCom Inc.(NasdaqNM:WCOM - news) to hurt Ciena over the near term. ''They will do what they need to do to keep their networks going -- channel adds, etc. It's business as usual,'' he said. Nettles said Ciena is comfortable with Wall Street's near-term revenue and profit expectations, but he declined to provide specific forecasts. Nettles said he expects with gross margins in the mid- 40-percent range by the end of next year. Research and development spending will be roughly 20 percent of revenues for about the next two quarters, and then R&D will to shrink to about 12 to 13 percent of revenues by the end of 2000, he said