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

To: sepku who wrote (20353)	11/1/1997 1:53:00 AM
From: sea_biscuit	Respond to of 61433

Does anybody know the impact of this on ASND, or for that matter, on any of the other hi-tech companies such as INTC or MSFT? From 1997 onwards, companies have to report "pro-forma" earnings per share in addition to the "regular" and "fully diluted" earnings per share numbers (this is because of the implementation of SFAS No. 123 -- Accounting for Stock-based Compensation). Now, in companies that issue a lot of stock options (such as hi-tech companies in the Silicon Valley), this could reduce the pro-forma earnings considerably. As two examples, a tech-company like LSI Logic can have its pro-forma earnings reduced by 13% for this reason alone, all other things being equal. (This was reported in Barron's a few months ago). In contrast, a non hi-tech company like Pep Boys (PBY) or Sonoco (SON) could see a reduction of 2 to 3%, at the most. Of course, companies can still bury these numbers in their annual reports, but the thing is -- now they have* to compute these numbers*. They cannot just get away with some wishy-washy stuff, as they generally used to so far. If some smart-aleck analyst notices anything way out of the ordinary, he is sure to jump up and down and point it out. Just another one of those little things to keep in mind... Dipy.

To: sepku who wrote (20353)	11/1/1997 1:55:00 AM
From: sepku	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 61433

As ignorant as a few of these idiots at the Fool are, it looks like one of them brought to my attention a VERY old post I wrote here some time ago. To sum it up, I told Kevin Kessel that "the day ASND dipped into the 20's would be the day the devil's nuts hung icicles!"...and I added that the day it did I would declare myself a fool. ;o) And thus, being a man of my word, I shall have to suck it up (damn the Asian crisis!) and hereby declare to you all: I am a fool!! But NOT a "Motley Fool" -- never that!! Style Pts. Refresh your memories with the following link to that old fateful post: techstocks.com You called it Kevin...even way back in early September. Credit goes where credit is due.

To: sepku who wrote (20353)	11/1/1997 12:29:00 PM
From: Tavros	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 61433

P&F Madness, I am new to the ASND thread. In fact, I just started reading it over the past couple of days, because a friend of mine, whose opinion - both technical and in investing - I respect, brought ASND to my attention. His view, in short, was that ASND is a great company with tremendous technology particularly in the telecom switching sector - which in his view will be exploding in the next few years. He said that at the current prices ASND is a bargain. I took a look at ASND graph and, although I am not a Technical analyst, even I could tell that this looks like a stock in real trouble, in a major down trend. I also read your recent mail and a couple of other people's mails who make the same point in a much more elaborate manner. Before, I throw in the towel and look into other things, I wanted to ask you, and anybody else that cares to address my question, what in your opinion lies ahead for ASND? The graph describes history. Looking forward, is there anything in the pipeline (news, products, strategic repositioning, alliances, mergers?) on the basis of which one can make a reasonable case for buying the stock at these levels? As I went through the dozens of mails over the past couple of days, all I saw was heated, almost religious, debate about whether the stock is heading into 10's or going higher, but no facts or logic on which to base these predictions. At the end of the day ASND is a business, not a horse on which we are betting. So, again, are there any fundamental reasons to buy this company at these levels, or should I move on... ASND fans and others, you opinion is most welcome... Tavros PS: After I finished writing this note, I realized that T sent it to Styles Pt, instead of P&F. Anyway, the message still stands