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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mathemagician who wrote (16598)	1/27/2000 7:49:00 AM
From: DownSouth	Respond to of 54805

A couple of cc's ago, Dan W, CEO of NTAP, was asked a direct question about the BRCD relationship. He apologized that he could not discuss it at all because of non disclosure agreements.

To: Mathemagician who wrote (16598)	2/3/2000 1:16:00 PM
From: Spartex	Respond to of 54805

Stocks in Focus Feb 3 2000 9:00AM CST Archives... Data Banks of the Post-PC Era* Brocade Versus Novell by Chris Connor Click here for the introduction to the Ultimate Storage Championship. The Match-Up Fighting out of the red corner is the young Storage Area Network (SAN) powerhouse, Brocade {BRCD}. Fighting out of the blue corner is the old network software veteran, Novell {NOVL}, which has received a second chance with its powerful directory business. Directories allow users direct access to network storage from any location. In addition, directories provide network managers with a central database of information about everything in or attached to a network. On the other side, Brocade makes fibre channel switches for SANs that facilitate connectivity between any SAN devices and are able to maintain high bandwidth as additional devices are added to a SAN. Round 1: Which Company has the Superior Leadership Position? This is definitely the closest round in this tournament thus far because both companies dominate their attractive industries by wide margins. Brocade dominates the fibre channel switch market with around an 80 percent market share while Novell has dominated directories for years. Since there cannot be a draw in any round, Novell gets the edge for superior leadership in its key industry because it continues to successfully hold at bay the largest, most powerful software company in the world, Microsoft {MSFT}. Brocade has yet to face that caliber of competition. Round 2: Which Company has a Better Growth Record? This round is Novell's biggest weakness of this tournament and Brocade fully exploits that fact. Where Novell has just begun to regain some lost momentum in its last four or five quarters, Brocade has been on fire during that time. Brocade has grown its revenues a whopping 559 percent from about $4.6 million in the 3rd quarter of 1998 to $30 million in the 4th quarter of 1999. Moreover, Brocade has already begun to achieve profits because of its exceptional revenue growth. Round 3: Which Company's Industry has a Brighter Outlook? This round has to go to the old veteran, Novell. As in the preceding match-ups of this tournaments, the major limitation of SAN stocks is that Network Attached Storage (NAS) is the superior storage standard for the long term. However, Brocade is the cream of the crop among SAN stocks because it is spearheading the likely combination of SANs and NAS with the dominant NAS leader, Network Appliance {NTAP}. In contrast to SANs, the potential for directories is nearly limitless. Customers no longer have to buy Netware to use Novell's directories. Separating Novell's directories from Netware should serve to elevate directories to a markedly higher echelon as directories will likely play key roles in both business-to-consumer and business-to-business (B2B) relationships over the Internet. Directories are so pervasive because they enable efficient and secure management of data storage, users, customers, and devices over either a company's Intranet or the wild world of the Internet. For example, CNN uses Novell's directories to deliver customized content to web users - making it possible for CNN to attract targeted advertisers. The Winner Novels wins a hard-fought split decision over Brocade and will move on to face either EMC {EMC}, the world leader in storage hardware, or Veritas {VRTS}, the world leader in storage software, in the next round. Brocade probably would have defeated half of the other companies in this tournament including the other 2 SAN stocks, but Brocade had the misfortune of fighting a dangerous veteran in the first round of the tournament. The incredible pervasiveness of directories has carried Novell, formerly viewed as an also-ran large software company, to an impressive victory. *This report is part of a multi- part series about storage in the post-PC era. Click here for the initial report that profiled the entire storage industry. Disclaimer: This report is published solely for informational purposes and is not to be construed as advice or a recommendation to buy or sell a security. Trading involves risk, including possible loss of principal and other losses. Your trading results may vary. No representations are being made that utilizing techniques mentioned in this article will result in or guarantee profits in trading. Past performance is no indication of future results. wallstreetcity.com