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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scott Zion who wrote (18595)	10/21/1997 10:49:00 PM
From: hitesh puri	Respond to of 61433

Hi ALL, some feedback I wanted to pass on after reading some analyst reports recently. These guys met with the management last week and here are some key points : 1) Agreed that Europe's soft demand for the RAC due to lengthy testing screwed the quarter up. 2 carries wins already in hand rest are being done in this quarter as some specific features the other clients are used to from the MAX 4000 series get incrementally integrated into the TNT. ( I recall that from the CC ) 2) Cisco is huffing and puffing to blow down Ascends house with focused marketing and test results done in an attempt to highlight TNT weaknesses (sounds like the LANquest tests done with the bad software revision). But "While enterprise accounts are more willing to listen to marketing rhetoric, many of Ascends traditional ISP and carrier customers put competitive products through the paces to evaluate each of the respective offerings. Thus far, Ascend has yet to lose a core access concentrator customer" 3) The TNT is unmatched in density, features and price performance (this is a key point). There would be little debate that Ascend would be in deeper trouble if a competing offering existed to capitalize on Ascends recent struggles. Nevertheless, once the platform is stable and all features are completely in then the company has significant leverage potential. Cisco's next generation Nitro offering is rumored to be available around mid next year. In the meantime, Ascend has begun work on its next generation platform that is due out next year as well. Good luck.

To: Scott Zion who wrote (18595)	10/22/1997 12:06:00 AM
From: Jack Whitley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

<<Others were glad to speculate. "Their next move is to buy somebody or form a strong alliance," says Pierre Bernard, manager of the New Economy Fund at Montreal-based T. A. L. Investment Counsel. Bernard lists Ascend(ASND:Nasdaq), Cabletron (CS:NYSE) and Fore Systems (FORE:Nasdaq) as takeover candidates.>> Lucent and Nortel hate each other, going back to hundreds of AT&T G3 vs Nortel Meridian battles in the voice arena. If Lucent thought Nortel was a serious contender for Ascend, they would be running the numbers on a buyout as I type. jww