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Technology Stocks : Nortel Networks (NT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (6784)	9/12/2000 1:40:09 PM
From: Bill	Respond to of 14638

I'm surprised the compliance officer at RS allowed him to cover ONIS. This is clearly a conflict of interest that the SEC should look into.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (6784)	9/12/2000 4:44:24 PM
From: peggylynn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14638

Bosco and Peggylynn will recall a discussion a few weeks back about a comment by Paul Johnson that Nortel's OPTera was "proprietary". We were confused by that comment. Now, it appears that Johnson owns about $9 million of ONIS, a company which is being sued by Nortel for patent infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. Analyst Owns $9M in ONI Systems Stock " Paul Johnson, a managing director of Robertson Stephens, and one of Wall Street's most respected technology analysts, has made a bundle owning pre-IPO shares of ONI Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ONIS). He is listed in the company’s S-1 as having over 100,000 shares of preferred stock. Ken - What confused me was how Paul Johnson was defining the term "open" and what specific conclusions led him to confer the status of "gorilla" on some of his favorite picks. My friend in the telco business didn't find Johnson's comments to be meaningful and Telcomguy's comments seemed to confirm this. The lack of specificity about the competitive advantages of Johnson's picks combined with Robertson Stephens' financial stake made me question the conclusions initially. It is beyond my reasoning capabilities to understand why, at the very least, that ONI's coverage was not assigned to another Stephens analyst. It seems that with so much money at stake in the telecommunications sector that ethics have pretty much fallen by the wayside. It would be nice if the SEC would show an interest in this along with the technical advisory boards and friends and family shares. However, the SEC seems more like an agency much more concerned perpetuating their existence than in keeping the market on the straight and narrow. I would be shocked if they demonstrated the slightest concern. I can remember one analyst commenting at the time of ONI's IPO that the Nortel suit might have more merit than mere nuisance value. I'm not sure that the recent revelation adds more weight to that opinion or not but it sure makes one wonder if it might. - peggylynn