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Technology Stocks : RETIX (RETX) Perhaps Another Acquisition Target For CSCO? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dana Johnson who wrote (883)	10/25/1997 2:46:00 AM
From: bigpicture	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1119

...Just an opinion...(ps.s. i'm long now for over 1.5 years...) I personally feel that Vertel's main competition is the Telco's themselves..if you consider that when you pick up a phone you expect 100% of the time you will get a dialtone...I think most TMN solutions are built in-house...anything not built inhouse they probably kick the tires for years...I probably can't articulate it well, but the part of TMN that Vertel competes in is at the bottom...(not indicating that this is bad)...They build tool's that allow anybodys "switch" to communicate with anybody elses "switch"...as a non-technical person with a low understanding of TMN the best analogy I make for myself is TCP/IP...it is a standaard within communications...best guess is that the ITU has decided that the way in wich differant worldwide telco's should communicate is through TMN...(Most telco traffic travels through many vendor's networks worldwide, as well as through sattlelites etc...) TMN at a differant leval (don't think Vertel adresses this space) can help a Telco manage there billing, sefvices, etc... I personally think the big growth won't be till Q2 1998...(in hindsight I was in the stock one yeaar early...although good prices...) HP (Open View is dominent in this space pre-anad post TMN) will be a major boost to deployment of TMN, I think more so then MSFT which is just trying to boast scalibility of there NT platform.. On the 13D...Doubt it...Buyout...doubt it... I wasn't aware of any pending Sonoma news, are you able to add to this statement? I would apreciate it... I had OSII for along time, but sold when Amerindo sold...(I know them to be buy and hold guys...so it was discerning to see them lower their stake recently...however encouraging that the origanal founders are now back in "hands-on" positions, I beleive they still own a majority of shres too...(not positive on thata...) Other then the Telco's themselves..I beleive the biggest competion is with a few of the privatly held companyys... Other public co's that i'm aware of in the TMN space include OSII TCSI TTILF the I I.P.

To: Dana Johnson who wrote (883)	10/25/1997 10:42:00 AM
From: Adam Smith	Respond to of 1119

Dana Vertel Direct Competitors are: ISR Global DSET Internal Telco Build Decision Both small private companies but they do have their market share: DSET merged with Marben last July which has OEM'd their product to many in industry. Now that Vertel is integrated with HP new competitors are: SUN OS Network Manager OSII TCSI The complete TMN market will be in Ontario next week at the Telco Mgt Show. Check out the Telco Mgt Web page. Go to Vertel Web Page and click on other industry events. Great info on every competitor. The good news is that now HP/Vertel are selling jointly they have over 50% marketshare. You'll see HP and Sun battling it out for market share. Vertel doubled their sales force with the HP deal. Key here is how fast the sales force ramps up. Industry trends are to buy packages and Vertel is lowering price of joint products to enforce that. They are doing all the right things. Sales may take off next quarter but bigpicture may be right about taking a few more quarter. Anyway you look at it though the freight train is coming. Sonoma has been making progress also. Their product is being well received in the trials. Sonoma has a big show week in early Nov. It's on their web page. Look for some nice orders/annoucements during that show. Good luck.....I've never been a big options fan. Timing is everything in that game. ADAM