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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: Tim Luke who wrote (72052)	11/11/1999 11:40:00 PM
From: Riley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90042

This is part one of Barron's article from yahoo.. Part two to follow... New management, hot products, rapidly growing markets and a leaner business model should put Cabletron back in the fast lane, some pros now say. "They are improving margins, outsourcing sales, bringing down SG&A (sales, general and administrative expenses) and spinning off their software business," In the quarter ending in August, the company finally showed a year-over-year earnings gain, and handily beat Wall Street's consensus estimates. That was the first glimmer of hope since its March 1998 acquisition of Yago Systems, a cutting-edge networking company. That deal was a turning point for Cabletron. The release of a sleek Yago-designed product, called a SmartSwitch, for data networking led to a sharper focus on the white-hot broadband market and an exit from slower-growing hubs, and culminated in ex-Yago CEO Piyush Patel being named Cabletron's CEO in June. The upshot: Today, around 25% of the company's revenue comes from fast-growth areas like data networking and broadband (some expect that portion to grow to 40%-50% of sales soon). In its second fiscal quarter, 37% of sales originated overseas (nearly double last year's 19%), and Cabletron's SmartSwitch business shot up 200% year over year, to $75 million in revenues . The SmartSwitch router (or Layer 3 switch) could be the key to a Cabletron comeback. "[It's] one of the hottest areas," says Lee Doyle, an industry analyst at the International Data Corporation. Indeed, IDC projects the Layer 3 switching market will grow to $11.3 billion in 2003, from $680 million in 1998, for a compound annual growth rate of 76%. Admittedly, Cabletron is up against the mighty Cisco and other fierce competitors like 3Com, Nortel and Lucent in that hotly contested market. But, surprisingly, it is neck to neck with Cisco for market leadership, with 20% share. And Cabletron has the technology and right price points to reach a key market: Internet service providers. "Cost is much more of an issue [for ISPs] than it is for a traditional enterprise, and [Cabletron] is a lot of more knowledgeable about product quality," says Zankel. And it's clearly paying off. Today around 14% of Cabletron's revenues come from ISPs, up from 10% a year ago. Other products for high-speed Internet access are doing particularly well, notably routers for network connectivity, digital subscriber loop (DSL), cable modems and Internet telephony, adds Andrews, who recently upgraded his rating on the shares to Buy from Maintain.

To: Tim Luke who wrote (72052)	11/12/1999
From: rowrowrow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90042

SI does has it's positives... but I've been designing computer systems for 20+ years. I'm not sure how much they poured into the new SI..... it's ok. I've done systems on my own that had the same functionality, and it didn't take that long. Since they are charging folks, they could of added a lot more "bells and whistles" and better understand what their customers want. Something to set them apart from RB, Yahoo etc.. I use that those sites because SI is not one stop shopping. I got here early for a one time fee so I guess I can't whine too much. No substance to Wallstreet stand so far.