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To: Technocrat who wrote (28078)	11/15/2000 5:35:15 AM
From: Nine_USA	Respond to of 29386

A few more details on the NTAP results: Network Appliance Profit Jumps, Sales Seen Slower By Peter Henderson SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (Reuters) - Computer network storage provider Network Appliance Inc. (NasdaqNM:NTAP - news) on Tuesday reported triple digit earnings and sales growth, beating expectations, but a forecast of slower sales growth ahead clouded the company's outlook. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Network Appliance, whose data systems are a major component in helping build the Internet, earned pro-forma net income of $36.6 million, or 10 cents a share, in the period ended Oct. 27, a 128 percent rise on pro-forma profit of $16.1 million, or 5 cents, a year ago. The profit edged by analysts' consensus forecast of 9 cents a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial. The company saw quarterly revenues climb 109 percent to $260.8 million from last year's $124.7 and beat analysts' expectations of $255.3 million. But analysts focused on a sales forecast by Chief Financial Officer Jeff Allen, who said in a conference call that revenues would grow by about 10 percent to 15 percent per quarter after 13 percent in the second quarter ended Oct. 27. Sales for the fiscal year would be $1.1 billion, he said. ``Unfortunately, in this market you don't get rewarded for just doing a good job,'' said Chase H&Q analyst Bill Lewis. Lewis added, however, that he was confident quarterly growth would not dip to the bottom of the 10-15 percent range and argued that opportunities for the firm were still tremendous. ``They've got the right products and they are moving into the right markets,'' he added. Stock Had Been On A Roll Ahead of the earnings, Network Appliance shares had been on a roll for much of the day, closing up $11-3/4, or 14 percent, at $96-1/4 on Nasdaq. But the stock lost most of its gains in after-hours U.S. trading, falling to $87-1/4 on the Instinet trading system. Glen Ingalls, an analyst with WIT Soundview, said the financial results just topped his forecast and that executives' forecasts were no surprise. ``I don't think the numbers on the street are going to change much,'' he said, though he attributed the after hours fall to lack of a big, pleasant surprise. ``It's not the same magnitude of upsets they have given us in the past,'' Ingalls said. ``It was just a matter of time before it (revenue growth) would decelerate.'' He and Lewis both pointed to a rebound in the firm's sales of caching products, which allow a network to work faster by keeping the most-needed information closer to users. The firm builds complex systems to store and quickly access data that are critical for Internet firms and others trying to manage the tidal wave of information that users inside and outside of companies need. Network Appliance is attempting to offer a range of products that will help manage the flow of information. Chief Executive Warmenhoven said competitors such as EMC Corp. (NYSE:EMC - news) were not winning away clients and that there was lots of room to grow, since his firm had only about $1 billion of a $15-16 billion market. But he said he had been expecting growth to slow for a while. ``I have been telling them that they have seen the peak in terms of growth rates on a year-over-year comparable basis. The five prior quarters have been 80, 90, 100, 120 and 124 percent. You have seen the peak at 124. It will come down,'' he said.

To: Technocrat who wrote (28078)	11/15/2000 7:05:58 AM
From: Pigboy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29386

Techno, Re; NTAP...yes, in Wall Street these days it seems the momentum will only attach to that trite word, "acceleration." As in revenue AND earnings acceleration. Seems NTAP's growth is slowing a little bit, even though its still growing at a phenomenal clip compared to most industries/companies. Not.........good. Oh well. ;-) That's what I like about the Q...with the faster growing FC segment finally taking up over half of Q's revenues, this states the obvious. And here at 120 (well, for today), its good to see such strength (and again, this a.m. may portend different things) in this market. Now that Dell has lowered forcasts for next year to a nice low, I am thinking about getting as a storage play. I thought this before, but was way too early. I'd love to have more discussion on the big storage players currently and what will happen over the next few years...what little i know, i have-- EMC-- storage Gorilla NTAP -- NAS Gorilla...being attacked from all sides now SUN -- server Gorilla who is starting to attack storage DELL -- attacking all storage from the low end IBM -- mainframe base, attacking storage from the middle out VRTS -- Storage software leader Brcd Qlgc ----> equipment for SANs Who here is going to have the accelerated revenues and earnings for the next few years in storage? These companies may all be there in the next year, for all I know. Perhaps, some plays are obvious. Would love to hear more thoughts here... << What did Egan (cofounder of EMC) sell before the company stumbled into the storage biz? >> Just checked out Dick Agan at EMC's site. Pretty intriguing dude. Been in and out of a lot of interesting places. Involved with Apollo Moon Landing and worked with Intel, etc...Not sure what your answer would be but I would guess EMC sold add-on memory boards before they worked with storage since thats what the Web site said. ;-) Is this a clue to something? Cheers, pigboy

To: Technocrat who wrote (28078)	11/15/2000 10:53:01 AM
From: J Fieb	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29386

IS DELL the big winner of that navy EDS contract? Dell Takes Aim At Storage Leaders (11/14/00, 7:16 p.m. ET) By Steven Burke, CRN LAS VEGAS -- Dell Computer Corp. CEO Michael Dell wants to shake up the storage market with industry-standard SAN and NAS solutions priced below current levels. Dell (stock: DELL) wants to set prices for the solutions in some cases at 10 to 20 times less than the current prices from such storage players as EMC Corp. (stock: EMC), he said. "The interesting thing is that we are seeing the same thing happen in storage that we have seen with all other markets," said Dell in a press conference at Comdex Fall 2000. "If you look out at the show floor here, you will see the componentization of storage technology. "That's a very healthy environment for Dell," he continued. "As those standards take hold it means that Dell can not only with its own capability, but with partners, deliver world-class storage systems." Solution providers can now buy silicon and software stacks to bring industry-standard storage solutions to market. Dell said it would be a "mistake" for storage companies to "underestimate our resolve" in the fast-growing SAN and NAS market. In the low-end Windows and Unix SAN storage market, Dell claimed his company has already captured the No. 2 spot. In the most recent quarter, Dell said, storage represented the fastest-growing part of the business. Dell's SAN and NAS sales were up 72 percent in the most recent quarter compared with the similar quarter one year ago. Meanwhile, Dell, Round Rock, Texas, recently won a large contract to provide the U.S. Navy with 2000 Tbytes of storage. "This is a very significant win, one that will make a positive dent in our revenues and a negative dent in the competing companies and, yes, I am talking about the companies with three letters," said Dell, referring to storage competitors EMC, IBM Corp. (stock: IBM) and Sun Microsystems Inc. (stock: SUNW). "We are going right after the storage business." Dell conceded that his company's SAN and NAS sales are solutions aimed primarily at the lower end of the market.