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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Process Boy who wrote (89811)	10/11/1999 9:08:00 AM
From: Amy J	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

re: Excerpts from the Barrons Exodus Article: Hi Process Boy, RE: From the article, "If you don't own a network you cannot guarantee the connection," RE: "This seems, in my very unwashed opinion, like a valid concern to me Amy. What are your thoughts on this issue?" This is the only area which concerns me. I am concerned. RE: "Are there any possible avenues for operations such as Intel's or Exodus' to form partnerships with companies that own network infrastructure? Or are all of these companies competitors?" Yes (to your first question) and no (to your second question.) The key is to get the right relationships. What might be good now, may not be good for Intel later on. So, who is the best? I don't know, but here are my thoughts: - Exodus appears to be very-well positioned on the high-end. - However, Intel is the type of company which is good at building facilities & handling high-volume productions. Intel's style tends to target the bottom (where the volume is larger) and then moves its way up after it secures a solid and large base (like it is doing in the microprocessor business). From this, let's assume Intel is targeting the low-end to middle range of the market [I'm not sure if this is the case, but if Intel doesn't own network infrastructure {for high-end maximum-reliability}, this could be a reasonable assumption.] - This implies to me, that Intel (assume low-end to middle range) and Exodus (high-end) wouldn't necessarily be head-on competitors, at least not initially. - This implies Intel could have a synergistic relationship with Exodus, at least for the short-term, but long-term, this would be like Intel partnering with Sun's microprocessor group. Why partner, if this limits the opportunity to move up the food-chain where margins are higher (just like Intel is doing in the microprocessor business)? - However, long-term, I believe costs will be one of the most important issues in this business, which implies Intel would need to have either: a) relationships with network infrastructure companies or, b) own network infrastructure, [Note: Exodus is taking the stand that they aren't going to compete on price.] - However, I believe cost and reliability will be the most important drivers over the long-term. This implies Intel needs to partner with a company which controls network infrastructure (for reduced costs and for maximum reliability), so this would not be Exodus. Why doesn't Intel establish a partnership with an AT&T or Qwest? However, I think the downside of partnering with AT&T is AT&T wants to compete in this business! So, the best partner would be a network infrastructure company which doesn't want to enter the server farm business. A question for Paul: I recall you made a post (a long time ago ~ spring or summer of 99) about Williams. Is it possible to find that post again? I'd like to read it again. If my memory is correct, I believe your post said Intel made an investment in Williams (if so, maybe this might be Intel's answer?) Do you recall the post or could you please find/confirm - I don't have the SI-search capabilities you have! Thanks! Amy J

To: Process Boy who wrote (89811)	10/11/1999 11:26:00 AM
From: Tony Viola	Respond to of 186894

PB, That's all Intel needs is an "ebay outage", high profile failure event, or heaven forbid, a series of them. With Intel's high public profile... All IT companies' products, whether software, hardware, server, storage or network get hit with outages. Of course you know this. You just have to hope you did enough among design, RAS, verification testing, manufacturing, etc. to limit them to a very low occurrence range. You also hope and pray that what escapes does not hit at a high profile company, like ebay, Amazon, AOL, AT&T, EDS... Tony