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

To: Larry J. who wrote (24107)	11/19/1997 11:53:00 PM
From: Gary Korn	Respond to of 61433

Sounds like sour grapes from a competitor that lost a big deal. Ascend's relationship w HiNet is not new. This was first reported months ago. Larry, Even if ASND did discount the ports by 85%, you could look at it as a loss leader. When it comes time to put in more ports, or to upgrade to voice, etc. as per 1998 product offerings, the buyer is already in an ASND world, so it will suffer some increase in prices rather than retrofit to a new vendor. Gary Korn

To: Larry J. who wrote (24107)	11/20/1997 12:21:00 AM
From: Ron Masson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 61433

> Sounds like sour grapes from a competitor that lost a big deal. > Ascend's relationship with HiNet is not new. This was first reported > months ago. > > Larry Sorry if it came across as sour grapes - it was not the intention. I just thought Ascend investors might like to know what's happening out on the street. It's a war out there. Ascend used to have no competition in this space. Now they are having to fight VERY hard in every deal. The reality of the HiNet deal is that every vendor knew that whoever won the deal would effectively control the RAS marketplace in Taiwan. In the case of the 3Com, it was also a beachhead for x2 modem sales in the consumer market. After several rounds of negotiation, 3Com had the cheapest price. Then at the 11th hour, Ascend came in and blew everyone away with a very aggressive discount. In the end, it became a market share vs margin decision. Rightly or wrongly, Ascend chose market share. Just thought you might be interested. RPM (currently writing from Bay's Taipei office)