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Technology Stocks : Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JT who wrote (10855)	12/14/1997 7:24:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

December 29, 1997 The 1998 Fortune Investor's Guide Fortune Picks the Brains of Four Scary-Smart Tech Investors What's the next big software play? Are there net stocks worth owning? What about intel? Is the tech boom over? For answers, read on. With that and many other questions in mind, FORTUNE called together some of the way-smartest investing minds in infotech. John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Menlo Park, Cal., the nation's preeminent venture capital firm, has nurtured a pantheon of companies including Compaq, Sun Microsystems, and Netscape. Ron Elijah, portfolio manager of two Robertson Stephens funds, the Value+Growth Fund and the Information Age Fund, has both a superior understanding of technology and a stellar investing record. Roger McNamee, general partner of Integral Capital Partners, also in Menlo Park, is one of the most quoted commentators on the infotech scene. Mary Meeker is Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's highly regarded PC and Internet software stock analyst. Besides being a truly big-picture thinker, she is also one of the best writers on Wall Street, turning out insightful and (gasp!) witty research reports. This gang of four convened recently with FORTUNE senior writer Andrew Serwer in the boardroom at Kleiner Perkins headquarters. Enchiladas, rice, and beans were served. McNamee: The people who are building the Internet have a gigantic business opportunity. The obvious leader is Cisco Systems, which is the dominant player in networking. Sun Microsystems is down a ton. I'm sorry, but this company is not going out of business. The stock is unbelievably cheap. You cannot build the Internet without Sun servers. 3Com is another stock that's down a ton. They're having a lot of inventory issues this quarter and people are terrified, but they are No. 2 in networking. They're not going away. We're huge fans of PMC-Sierra, which dominates a number of markets for the chips that you use to build networking devices. A recent IPO called Mmc Networks, which makes a different kind of networking chip. Some people are now saying the run is over for Cisco and 3Com. Meeker: That's what they've been saying for years. So this is really just the pause that refreshes? McNamee: I would suggest that every time you hear somebody tell you that Cisco Systems isn't going to grow anymore, you ought to buy the stock. The same way you should add on Intel. Customers don't want to deal with ten different vendors. These are industries where customers want somebody to set a standard, and they will reward that company disproportionately. Meeker: If you believe in the growth in the Internet, you have to own Cisco. pathfinder.com What was that again? McNamee: I would suggest that every time you hear somebody tell you that Cisco Systems isn't going to grow anymore, you ought to buy the stock. The same way you should add on Intel. Customers don't want to deal with ten different vendors. These are industries where customers want somebody to set a standard, and they will reward that company disproportionately. Meeker: If you believe in the growth in the Internet, you have to own Cisco. Thank you for making that completely clear, and thank you for "the best analysis". Regards