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To: marginmike who wrote (45870)	10/23/1999 11:22:00 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

To all -can I please "rant" about Sycamore Networks ? I just started looking into it a little this morning. Here are two links to Hoovers Online stuff about Sycamore : hoovers.com bigcharts.com And, here is the WSJ story on the IPO. October 22, 1999 Sycamore Networks Rockets Above $100 a Share in Debut By RAYMOND HENNESSEY Dow Jones Newswires NEW YORK -- Forget Martha Stewart and the WWF. This week's red-hot public offering came from Sycamore Networks Inc., which makes products that enhance high-speed voice and data lines. Shares of Sycamore, based in Chelmsford, Mass., opened at $270, seven times above its $38 offering price. It backed off a bit to close at $184.75, up 386% from the offering price. Also making a notable Nasdaq entrance Friday was an IPO from fast-growing Web-site hosting firm Navisite Inc., another hot CMGI Inc. Web property. Industry titans Dell Computer Corp. and Microsoft Corp. both own minority stakes in Navisite. Navisite shares closed at $34.625, a 147% premium to the $14 a share offering price. The stock opened at $29.50. Underwriters led by BancBoston Robertson Stephens priced the offering of 5.5 million shares higher than the expected range of $10 to $12 a share. Based in Andover, Mass., Navisite is an Internet-application service provider offering Web site and application hosting and management services. After the IPO, CMGI will retain about 80% of NaviSite. Sycamore's Wild Ride The opening put it in league with some of the largest openings in history, behind such other high-profile debuts this year like that of Foundry Networks Inc. There was strong prepricing demand for the offering. The 7.5-million-share deal was originally filed to price between $18 to $20 a share, but that was raised earlier this week to between $35 to $37. Even in this Internet-driven market, where increases in price ranges are commonplace, a jump to that level is unusual. However, most analysts said the increase was mostly due to too conservative pricing on the deal to begin with. Sycamore has many of the factors investors like in a new issue. For one thing, the company has a brand-new technology that makes voice and data transmission more efficient over fiber-optic lines -- something sought after with the continued expansion of the Internet. The company's products allow communications to be carried along lines on wavelengths of light. Current systems need optical signals to be converted into electrical signals at certain points, thus slowing down traffic. Sycamore removes the need for this conversion. First to IPO Market Other companies are expected to come to market with similar technologies, but Sycamore benefited from being the first IPO in the sector. Sycamore was also "born with a silver spoon in its mouth," particularly because of its relationship with Williams Communications Group Inc., said Kathy Smith, portfolio manager at Renaissance Capital's IPO Plus Aftermarket Fund in Greenwich, Conn. The company only began selling its products in May and Williams is its only customer. But Williams has turned out to be pretty good customer, accounting for $11.3 million in revenue from May through the end of July. Sycamore is still unprofitable. For the year ended July 31, it lost $19.5 million. But the strong relationship with Williams allows Sycamore to easily be compared with Ciena Corp., which came public in early 1997 armed with a strong contract with Sprint Corp. In the cases of Sycamore and Ciena, investors are "dealing with start-ups, but pretty decent start-ups," Mr. Smith said. Write to Raymond Hennessey at raymond.hennessey@dowjones.com Copyright ¸ 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. *********************************** Excuse me, but ... THIS IS NUTS !!! Jon.