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Technology Stocks : JDS Uniphase (JDSU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SJS who wrote (12465)	8/30/2000 11:35:56 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 24042

Last December, I picked up a check from a downtown brokerage firm. The broker, who was decked out in a very expensive suit, told someone who stood in the hall, just as the doors closed, "buy LU!" I said to him, "Are you kiddin!. I believe they announced recently that they would miss earnings." I was dressed in my husband's worn-out flannel shirt, and a cheap jacket! And he looked at me, amazed.....He never uttered a word. Of course, it wasn't easy to get my check. In order to do so, I showed the clerk my passport. (ggg)

To: SJS who wrote (12465)	8/31/2000 2:08:36 AM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24042

August 30, 2000 JDS Uniphase Pres:E-Tek Buy Going Well;SDL Deal On Track By TOM LOCKE Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES DENVER -- JDS Uniphase Corp.'s (JDSU) President and Chief Operating Officer Charles Abbe said Wednesday that the company's integration of its June acquisition of E-Tek Dynamics Inc. is going well. "I would submit that we're working through the E-Tek integration extremely well," he said. He noted that the companies have already integrated their sales forces and created a series of integration teams along common product lines. E-Tek has a very strong presence in Asia, with capacity in Taiwan and China, he added, and "we intend to capitalize on that low-cost manufacturing." Abbe said he is often asked how JDS can integrate all of its acquisitions, and he emphasized that the integration of acquisitions only goes up to a certain point, because JDS stresses a decentralized approach that enables multiple entrepreneurial management teams to operate. He said integration at JDS includes the following: the creation of a central point of contact for customers; an integrated strategy emanating from the top; and a testing of decision-making against the company's announced goal of expanding capacity fourfold in 18 months. E-Tek was JDS's first major acquisition that involved an overlap of product lines, Abbe said, so it entails more challenges than others. But the proposed SDL Inc. (SDLI) acquisition also has overlap, he said. That proposed $41 billion acquisition of SDL, another maker of fiber optics components, is still on track for an estimated closing at the end of December, Abbe said. He noted that JDS had anticipated the recently announced second request from the U.S. Justice Department for information regarding the acquisition. The deal was first announced in July, and federal regulators are looking at possible antitrust issues. The JDS emphasis on keeping a decentralized approach with its acquisitions gives it a competitive edge, according to Abbe. "Our strategy is to be and remain the most entrepreneurial," he said. One competitor, Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU) has announced plans to spin off its Microelectronics Group as an independent company that will include its optoelectronics and integrated circuits divisions. "We are not worried about Lucent's plans," Abbe said. The spin-off from Lucent will have to stand on its own feet, so there is a greater chance to "keep everyone honest on pricing," he said. Reiterates Guidance; Backs First Call Views Abbe also reiterated previous guidance, provided in late July, of sequential revenue growth for the first fiscal quarter, ending in September. He said the revenue growth will be in the "very high teens" from the $524 million posted in the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30. And he reiterated that he expects "just over 50% gross margins." He doesn't see that changing, "certainly over the next year," he said. Abbe also told Dow Jones Newswires after his presentation that he is "comfortable" with the First Call/Thomson Financial consensus earnings estimate of 16 cents a share for the fiscal first quarter. He added that the company is "comfortable with First Call numbers for the year." The First Call consensus earnings estimate is 69 cents a share for fiscal 2001. In his presentation, Abbe also emphasized the company's previously announced intention to expand its production capacity fourfold over the next 18 months. He said it will do so in part through plant expansion, and he cited planned expansion in several locations in China, Santa Rosa, Calif., Connecticut, and Plymouth, England. In addition, JDS plans to expand capacity through improved manufacturing processes, automation, and outsourcing in selected areas. The outsourcing might be at the module level - as it is with its optical amplifier assemblies - or at a component level, with suppliers adding manufacturing steps that JDS would no longer have to take. JDS has 19,000 employees and a revenue run rate of $2.5 billion, based on the last quarter and including E-Tek. Abbe said the company is "extremely bullish" about the underlying growth in the fiber-optic market and thinks it will go on for years. Indeed, he expects an acceleration of demand when problems of getting high bandwidth over the last mile to the home are solved. JDS is taking advantage of that exploding demand. "We are on a terrific roll as a company, as I think you know," Abbe said. -By Tom Locke; Dow Jones Newswires; 303