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Technology Stocks : MRV Communications (MRVC) opinions? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Regis McConnell who wrote (20050)	4/4/2000 11:44:00 PM
From: Sector Investor	Respond to of 42804

Yes indeed, an excellent read. Some excerpts: After landing and driving to a company plant in nearby Eindhoven, Kalkhoven took a spot next to four board members at the back of a brightly lit, white-walled conference room. He listened quietly as plant managers explained why they needed an extra $21 million to meet his goals; just four months earlier, he had told them he wanted five times more production of fiber-optic components by 2001. Then, shedding his leather jacket, he dropped another bomb. ``Five times simply isn't going to be enough,' Kalkhoven, 55, told the stunned group. ``The reality is, we're looking at something like 10, and there's not a day we can waste.' So we see the opportunity MRVC has here. The KMW and FOCI moves will be GREAT moves, IMO. But look at another excerpt from that article: "Kalkhoven has to make up for a lack of experience in volume manufacturing. He's found that the lessons Intel Corp. co-founder Andy Grove mastered to build the world's No. 1 semiconductor company are a good place to start. ``The thing that made Intel great was that it learned to manufacture the microprocessor reliably and in volume,' said Kalkhoven. ``If we don't do that, we'll lose.' " Why volume? Two reasons: 1) Cut production costs and 2) hang on to big customers by keeping up with their demands. I think MRVC will have some BIG advantages here. If you look at the KMW and FOCI releases, much of the labor will be done in Korea and in mainland China (Shanghai, if I remember correctly). The significantly lower worker wages and closeness to the Asian markets should negate any volume price advantages JDSU gets. Another excerpt: "At the same time, he's busy melding the products and people of six companies he's spent $7 billion to acquire since August, staying ahead in the race to develop new optical technologies and keeping his 11,500 employees well-trained and happy." 11,500 employees!. MRV/FOCI will have another major advantage - being lean and mean -and INNOVATIVE! I think that MRV will also have a tech advantage with things like CWDM, I also think that Noam is going first after foreign markets rather than head-head competition with JDSU.