To: Boplicity who wrote (5460 ) 11/29/2000 8:04:24 PM From: SecularBull Respond to of 10934 Storage firms sag on growth, valuation concerns By Bloomberg News November 29, 2000, 2:30 p.m. PT URL: news.cnet.com HOPKINTON, Mass.--Shares of EMC and other computer-storage companies fell amid concern that the stocks are overvalued given a slowing economy and increased competition. EMC, the No. 1 maker of data-storage systems for corporations, fell $6.31, or 7.9 percent, to close regular trading at $73.19. Rival Network Appliance fell $2.20 to $50. Its shares have lost about two-thirds of their value, from a 52-week high of $152.75 on Oct. 20. Brocade Communications Systems, a storage-switch maker, fell $7.25, or 4.5 percent, to $153.75. Shares of storage companies like EMC have soared as more companies do business on the Internet and generate huge amounts of data that need to be stored and quickly retrieved. Analysts say some investors are concerned that a slowing economy may cause companies to cut back spending on technology, making those shares too expensive. "The fundamentals of the storage business are sound. But today it's all about the multiple (of the stocks) and the direction of the (stock) market," said William Lewis, a Chase Hambrecht & Quist analyst, who rates Brocade a "buy." Competition among some of the data-storage companies also is weighing upon investor sentiment, analysts said. EMC, based in Hopkinton, Mass., is expected to announce on Dec. 5 a new product that will compete directly with Network Appliance's main products, said Mark Kelleher, a First Albany analyst. He rates both EMC and Network Appliance as "strong buy." "Overall, storage is the last tech sector to withdraw," Kelleher said. "There is speculation that the economy is slowing, and that could put earnings estimates at risk." Kelleher said he doesn't expect a slowdown in data-storage spending, but did say that some of the stocks got ahead of themselves. "Brocade was one of the highest of the highest. They did need to come down," he said. "Others have become bargains."