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Technology Stocks : Lucent Technologies (LU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Immi who wrote (1234)	1/15/1998 7:33:00 PM
From: Capitalist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21876

Immi, Why LU would not buy ASND IMO. What would it get Lucent? The PortMaster product line already outperforms the MAX product line in tests, and has a higher margin. Remember it was Livingston that reset the cost of a digital NAS from $35K+ to under $17K with the PM-3. There is a new product on the way that makes the MAX TNT look like a toy - and they still haven't gotten all of the promised features working on the TNT anyway. So, what would Ascend gain Lucent? Cascade switching gear, the GRF IP switch, and some very low end products like the Pipeline-15. That isn't the meat of Ascend's business. Lucent could get frame switching and IP switch technology a lot cheaper with other acquisitions. And with large companies like Motorola fleeing the low end market, what would they want there? The Lucent Remote Access product line covers currently basically covers the equivalent of the Pipeline-50 (Lucent Office Router) to the MAX 4048 (PortMaster-3). As well as async equipment like the PortMaster-2 and -25, and pure routers in the IRX. And that includes a fully functional OSPF suite (Ascned is still fighting two year old issues) with more options that Ascend lacks, like NSSA. And Lucent has BGP-4 on the IRX and PM-3, something Ascend is incapable of doing on it's current products in the same class - the MAX 4000 line has a fixed RAM size which is too small. The next product in the pipes will hopefully be announced before too long, but it is far denser than a TNT (or any other current or announced product) with a higher performace - and a lot more growth potential inherent in the design. And the MAX line is Ascend's bread and butter. Since that would be worthless to Lucent, why spend that kind of money to get what amount to fringe products for Ascend that they could get through other acqusitions? Or even develop internally with the devisions they already have? The only people who seem to take it seriously are Wall Street folks. SH