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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (5127)	1/22/2003 3:16:17 PM
From: Gottfried	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

OT *** Cary The political discussion may be relevant but should not be posted here because it attracts posters who will post "crap". After all, there are plenty of threads for that. Reminds me of my dogs. The world is their toilet. :) Gottfried

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (5127)	1/22/2003 3:52:28 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Technology Growth Sighting! INTERVIEW-Brocade CEO sees growth over next two quarters Wednesday January 22, 3:46 pm ET By Boris Groendahl FRANKFURT, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:BRCD - News) will return to revenue growth in the next quarter or two, the head of the data storage networking firm said on Wednesday, dismissing the a threat from Cisco Systems, which has targeted Brocade's market. San Jose, California-based Brocade, which dominates the market for specialized computers that help companies manage large amounts of stored data, surprised investors in November when it said sales for the quarter that ends in January would fall short of expectations. But its Chief Executive Greg Reyes told Reuters in an interview that Brocade was less vulnerable to the global decline in spending for information technology because it benefits from a drive to squeeze the most out of existing equipment. "Data growth continues even if revenues are not growing," Reyes said. "I think we will return to top line growth in the next quarter or two. Certainly, we haven't seen demand deteriorating further in this quarter. "We are seeing strong demand from telecoms, somewhat surprisingly, from financial services and banking customers." Reyes was in Frankfurt after having attended a product launch by Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ - News) in Amsterdam on Monday. Brocade, which commands about 60 percent of the market for storage networks according to IDC, is due to report preliminary results for its first financial quarter, which ends in January, on Febr. 12. In November, it guided market expectations down when it said it saw sales of $120 million to $125 million in the quarter, sharply lower than Wall Street's consensus estimate of $153 million, as demand for its products dropped surprisingly. Rival McData Corp. (NasdaqNM:MCDT - News) this month raised its fourth- quarter earnings estimate, citing strong demand and a gain in market share. Reyes did not have an upbeat outlook for the information technology sector as a whole, saying demand for fresh IT gear could remain in the doldrums for more than another year. "I think 2003 is going to be very similar to 2002. We could be well into 2004 before we see IT budgets going up again," he said. "Companies are still spending, but they are much more thoughtful about how they are spending it." Global spending on information technology grew 3.7 percent last year, only half the rate of the past decade, after a 4.8 percent drop in 2001, according to IDC, a market research firm. CISCO NO IMMEDIATE THREAT Reyes played down an attack on Brocade's market launched by Cisco (NasdaqNM:CSCO - News) , the No. 1 maker of equipment for directing Internet traffic, which last summer said it would soon offer storage switches competing with Brocade's. By moving to so-called fabric switches, Cisco endorsed the technological strategy Brocade has been following for years and quietly abandoned an earlier attempt to develop switches based on the Internet protocol (IP), Reyes said. "They've created this hype about IP-based storage networks a couple of years ago. Now they come to the market with fabric switches. I see this as a validation of my strategy," Reyes said. "If this was a technology Cisco was familiar with, which they aren't, I would maybe see that as a more immediate threat." Heavyweight Cisco's push into the network storage market, driven by the need to store huge amounts of data such as banking transactions or billing details for phone calls, could also help the market as a whole, Reyes said. "Cisco's entrance is going to raise customer awareness and could make the market larger," he said. "Some customers have feared IP would become the dominating technology and did not invest earlier. They could now. "This market is big enough for two big players. But it takes more than a brand and marketing dollars."