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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jhild who wrote (9421)	11/18/1997 1:52:00 PM
From: David Lawrence	Respond to of 22053

BOCA RATON, Fla., Nov 18 (Reuters) - The financial crisis in Southeast Asia poses a serious potential threat to near-term product demand for networking companies doing business inthe area, a top industry executive said Tuesday. Speaking at a technology outlook conference hosted by SoundView Financial, 3Com Corp (NASDAQ:COMS) client access division president John McCartney said the company has already scaled back expectations for the region due to the crisis. "Asia on the margin is definitely a drag," McCartney said. "We don't expect growth in Asia in the current quarter." Cabletron Systems (NYSE:CS), another networker slated to appear today at the conference, cancelled its presentation. The reason for the cancellation was not immediately available. McCartney said China, a key market for the company in the region, remained robust, but countries where currencies have recently undergone sharp devaluations, networking projects may be delayed as governments evaluate their spending plans. "The structure of the economies there means financial problems get translated to real product demand fairly quickly," McCartney said. "Large projects, particularly ones that are government-related, are easily deferred." McCartney said 3Com did not have "particularly largeexposure" to Asia when compared with its peers and noted that 95 percent of its business in Asia was dollar-denominated. In cases where currencies move as sharply as they have, however, "generally some accommodations have to be made," particularly when dealing with large partners, he said. "Personally, I'm relatively pessimistic over the next few quarters about Asia," he said. McCartney declined to comment directly on the company's current profit or revenue outlook, citing a quiet period ahead of 3Com's earnings announcement, due later this month. He did reiterate comments from early in the quarter that modem inventories in the retail channel were higher than 3Com desired. Analysts have keenly watched those inventories ever since 3Com's acquisition of modem maker U.S. Robotics this summer.