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Technology Stocks : F5 Networks, Inc. (FFIV) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane Hall-Witt who wrote (906)	5/8/2000 11:04:00 AM
From: pass pass	Respond to of 1801

I started studying FFIV over the weekend. It does look cheap with reasonable P/E and P/S ratios. One thing bothers me is that none of the management members has substantial internet/telcom experience.

To: Lane Hall-Witt who wrote (906)	5/8/2000 11:09:00 AM
From: David E. Taylor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1801

Lane: I agree with your point, and in fact it was F5's deal with Dell to incorporate F5's technology into Dell's servers that got me back into F5 in the low 60's -- unfortunately a little early in light of the recent drop off in the stock. So even though the 3Com agreement will likely amount to nothing, the Dell agreement will (IMO) have a large impact on F5's revenues. Dell obviously believes that F5 adds value to its server line, and Dell isn't the kind of company to link up with losers. So, I'm going to hang in with my small presently underwater position for a couple of Q's at least to see how all this plays out. May add some when the smoke clears a bit. David T.

To: Lane Hall-Witt who wrote (906)	5/8/2000 11:27:00 AM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 1801

FFIV: The Truth by: YUMAN1234 5/8/00 11:22 am Msg: 32061 of 32061 Here is some info for those who still thinks that FFIV and CSCO competes in the same area: FFIV makes a software based traffic mgmt product and was beating CSCO's software based product and capturing market share. Thus, CSCO decides to buy ARPT, which makes a hardware based product which competes with ATON and FDRY. CSCO's reasoning is that it will give them a wider product mix and help them sell their software product in case people decide they don't want the hardware product and vise versa (good strategy on their part). Meanwhile, FFIV also develop these appliance product, hybrid software/hardware with the likes of IBM and HP. Thus, FFIV owns the appliance market, competes with CSCO in the software market (which it was winning), and does not compete at all in the hardware market. Now the jury is still out on which format is the best (appliance the easiest to install vs. supposely faster speed/higher traffic capacity using hardware vs. easy upgrades for software)but I am sure all 3 formats are being constantly upgraded to compete with each other. IMHO, this technology will be needed for a long time to come and there will be enough business for all 3 formats to flourish. FFIV might need to do a little merger of its own by say combining with ATON in order to offer a more complete portfolio of traffic management products but I think FFIV is oversold and will bounced hard once market turns positive