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

To: Maverick who wrote (1170)	2/12/1998 1:26:00 AM
From: blankmind	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1629

Vendors' ISDN Association Corrects and Replaces Previous Product Announcement Business Wire - February 11, 1998 18:44 NOTE: The following news release replaces and corrects the previous Vendors' ISDN Association news release which ran Monday on Business Wire, BW0226 (VENDORS-ISDN-ASSN). SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 11, 1998-- Always On/Dynamic ISDN -- AO/DI -- Networking Application Ready for Marketplace; Members of Vendors' ISDN Association (VIA) Plan Release of AO/DI Products; Bell Companies Prepare to Support AO/DI The Vendors' ISDN Association, Inc. (VIA), a non-profit consortium focused on ISDN, today announced that fifteen of its members will release Always On/Dynamic ISDN (AO/DI) networking products in 1998. Telecommunications companies Bell Atlantic (including NYNEX), BellSouth, and SBC Communications (which is the parent company of Southwestern Bell and Pacific Bell) have also announced plans to support the AO/DI application in their respective regions in early 1998. The widespread availability of AO/DI in 1998 will provide many benefits to consumers, business users, and industry players. "VIA members are excited and pleased to see the progression of AO/DI from a VIA initiative proposed in late 1996 to the product and application availability now," said Walt Mansell, VIA President. "Simultaneous release of AO/DI products and seamless support by carriers helps to ensure that the application works transparently. It also demonstrates the level of coordination attained between VIA and the National ISDN Council (NIC) to achieve AO/DI implementation." "AO/DI is perfect for telecommuters and home-based workers because the application simulates an 'in the office' environment. We are pleased to see the strong interest and support of AO/DI shown by ISDN vendors and service providers, and we applaud the availability of AO/DI for end-users," noted Garrett Jenkins, NIC Chair. The following VIA members announced they will release AO/DI products in the first quarter of 1998: Cisco Systems, ECI Telecom, Eicon Technology, ITK Telecommunications, Jetstream Communications, Telenetworks, Turnkey Solutions, and Virtual Access. In the second quarter of 1998, AO/DI products will be released by VIA members ADTRAN, Arescom, Ascend Communications, and Shiva. Finally, VIA members 3Com, Bay Networks, BinTec Communications, and Digi International confirmed plans to offer AO/DI products later in the year or in early 1999. The National ISDN Council (NIC) members Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth and SBC Communications confirmed that each will support the AO/DI application in their respective territories beginning in the first quarter of 1998. In addition, other NIC members, including Lucent Technologies and Nortel, have been very active in the AO/DI initiatives. ISDN tariffs will accommodate AO/DI under existing structures. (Bell Atlantic will be evaluating certain residential tariff implications later this year.) Please see the tables at the end of this announcement for more detail on AO/DI vendor product information and telecommunications service provider plans for AO/DI. Why AO/DI? AO/DI is an ISDN networking application that provides an enhanced service at a low cost to both ISDN end-users and information service providers. AO/DI uses the bi-directional D (signaling and packet) channel within an ISDN line to connect to the Internet, corporate network, or other information services provider. This 'Always On' real-time connection enables end-users to easily and almost immediately receive 'push' information such as e-mail, news feeds, credit card verification, automated data collection, and other types of data without having to dial up to the remote network each time information is desired. Since AO/DI eliminates the need for long-duration dial up connections, users do not incur expensive per-minute or other usage-based fees. Also, because ISDN Bearer (B) channels are invoked only when they are needed to boost data throughput, such as downloading a graphics-intensive Internet file, connection costs for the user are significantly reduced while high-speed performance is maintained. Several NIC members plan to support the AO/DI application with flat rate pricing for the packet component of residential ISDN service, making AO/DI very economical. Who Benefits From AO/DI? AO/DI is ideally suited for telecommuters and home-based workers or for anyone who uses electronic mail for personal or business communication. AO/DI ensures that information is immediately delivered to the desktop in a method transparent to the consumer. AO/DI is also a practical solution for in-office users, because considerable cost savings may be achieved by companies using AO/DI instead of having employees maintain dial up connections to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) over extended periods. Also, AO/DI helps telecommunications service providers ease network congestion by using packet switching rather than the circuit-switched Public Service Telephone Network (PSTN) to initiate information delivery. ISPs benefit from AO/DI by achieving greater port efficiencies. About VIA and the NIC The Vendors' ISDN Association (http://www.via-isdn.org) is a non-profit organization promoting the ongoing simplification, automation, and broad deployment of ISDN. The San Ramon, Calif.-based consortium includes 27 members from four countries. Membership is open to any interested party. Additional information about VIA members and activities, including AO/DI, can be found at via-isdn.org. The National ISDN Council (NIC) is comprised of companies funding the Bellcore ISDN work program to evolve National ISDN features and capabilities in the network, as well as to simplify National ISDN. Garrett Jenkins, BellSouth, is the NIC Chair. 1998 members of NIC include Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, Cincinnati Bell Telephone, Lucent Technologies, Nortel, and SBC Communications. Additional information on NIC activities and members can be found at bellcore.com. Vendors' ISDN Association Member AO/DI Product Release Schedule February 1998 --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- VIA Member Product(s) Supporting AO/DI Release Date --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- 3Com Client Q298 --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- ADTRAN Client mid-1998 --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Arescom Client; Server/Router mid-1998 --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Ascend Communications Server/Router Q198 --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- BinTec Communications Client; Server/Router Q398 --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Cisco Systems Server/Router Q198 --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Digi International Server/Router Q398 --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- ECI Telecom ISDN Extender available now --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Eicon Technology Client; Server/Router; available now PCMCIA card --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- ITK Client; PCMCIA card Q198 Telecommunications --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Jetstream Client Q198 Communications --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Shiva Router Q298 --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Telenetworks OEM Software available now --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Turnkey Solutions OEM Software available now --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Virtual Access Client; Router Q198 --------------------------------------------------- ----------------- National ISDN Council Member AO/DI Schedule February 1998 --------------------- ---------------------------- NIC Member Schedule for AO/DI Support --------------------- ---------------------------- Ameritech To Be Determined --------------------- ---------------------------- Bell Atlantic Q198 --------------------- ---------------------------- BellSouth Q198 --------------------- ---------------------------- SBC Communications Q198 --------------------- ---------------------------- CONTACT: VIA, Inc. Deepak Kamlani, 510/277-8110 dkamlani@inventures.com via-isdn.org

To: Maverick who wrote (1170)	2/12/1998 6:47:00 AM
From: Neil H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1629

Article on Ascend in 2/12/Forbes Mag. Part 1 By Michael Noer Ascend Communications could not exist anywhere but in Silicon Valley. Just shy of its tenth birthday, Ascend's (ASND) revenues exceed $1 billion, and yet until three months ago the Alameda, Calif.-based maker of computer networking gear didn't even budget out a year in advance. Charting Ascend's rise and fall. Not that it mattered. Until last year, Ascend's stock was a rocket ride, enriching Ascend executives, employees, and countless ordinary investors. Then in 1997 the stock plummeted from a high of $77.75 to as low as $22, and the company was slapped with a shareholder lawsuit. Iranian-born chief executive Mory Ejabat, a 47-year-old engineer with a M.B.A. from Pepperdine, once enjoyed accolades from the business press, including being named one of the "thirty who matter" by Forbes ASAP in October 1996. Now his future is uncertain as dark whispers swirl around Wall Street watercoolers that he is out of his league. Just last March Ascend paid $3.7 billion for Cascade Communications, a Westford, Mass.-based networking firm. Today Ascend itself is takeover bait. What went wrong? Until last year, Ascend's stock was a rocket ride. "Ascend went through growing pains," says Ascend's new CFO Michael Ashby, with British understatement. "Ascend woke up to find itself a billion-dollar startup. It had grown extremely rapidly, both internally and through acquisitions. You add all that up and here was a $1.2 billion company without the infrastructure necessary for a company of that size.

To: Maverick who wrote (1170)	2/12/1998 6:51:00 AM
From: Neil H	Respond to of 1629

Ascend Forbes article part 2 The accidental company founded in 1989 as a videoconferencing company, Ascend stumbled across a golden goose: Its MAX products, a line of what engineers call high-speed remote access switches. These computers can be used for high-quality videoconferencing, but they are also the machines that Internet providers need to provide dial-up access and that corporations use to hook together branch offices. Ascend introduced its first remote access switch in late 1992 and caught the exponential growth of the Internet. By 1996 remote access switches accounted for 82% of Ascend's $890 million in sales. To continue its breakneck growth, Ascend began looking for ways to start to sell networking gear to the big telecommunications firms, the "carrier market." Only one problem: quality control. Ascend's products were notoriously unreliable. This didn't matter so much when they were selling to mom-and-pop Internet Service Providers (ISPs), but it was completely unacceptable to bigger, more established companies. Only one problem: quality control. The way around the problem was to buy Cascade, a traditional carrier market supplier with a solid reputation. "Ascend was shipping primarily to ISPs, themselves startups. And the ISPs wanted product as soon as it was available. They didn't really care if it was finished or not," says Ashby. "But those ISPs are no longer startups, they have become big companies and in some cases very big companies. They can no longer accept products that are not extremely reliable. At the same time Cascade was selling to the carriers and they want 100% reliability." Buying Cascade made a lot of sense on paper, but it quickly turned into a logistical nightmare. Ascend could barely manage its own growth, let alone digest another fairly large company located on the other side of the country. The results were ugly. The day the merger was announced Ascend's stock dropped 11 points. Cascade employees fled. Ascend couldn't hire enough engineers to complete projects on schedule and products were shipped prematurely, full of bugs. Revenues suffered and so did the bottom line. In the third quarter of last year Ascend missed Wall Street earning estimates by more than ten cents a share (see Spare a dime, brother?) and the stock was pummeled.

To: Maverick who wrote (1170)	2/12/1998 6:54:00 AM
From: Neil H	Respond to of 1629

Ascend Forbes article Part 3 Blame, blame everywhere but not a drop to . . . Ejabat, who according to our estimates earned over $14 million last year, doesn't want to point the finger. "We had a bad quarter. I can't blame it on anyone. We just didn't execute. You can always find a lot of scapegoats. I just don't like to do that." Perhaps Ejabat is avoiding the most obvious scapegoat of all--himself. After all he was the guy running a $6 billion company in market cap without an annual budget. Is he over his head? By background and training, Ejabat is an engineer and an operations guy. He joined Ascend way back in its videoconferencing days as employee number ten, vice president of operations. Before Ascend, Ejabat was an operations executive at Micom Systems, a Simi Valley, Calif.-based networking company, now owned by Nortel. "You can always find a lot of scapegoats. I just don't like to do that." "Mory [Ejabat] is not one of the founders, although in many ways he acts like one. He is very technology oriented and really functions more as a chief technology officer than a CEO," says one analyst who wishes to remain anonymous. Ejabat was probably the perfect CEO for Ascend when its customers were primarily engineering managers at Internet companies. But Ascend's customers are increasingly large telecommunications companies, and even at smaller firms information technology decisions are now seen as too important to delegate. The nontechnical CEO is the new Ascend customer. Perhaps most damning of all is that Ejabat shows no signs of having the fire in the belly of, say, John Chambers of rival Cisco Systems. Maribel Lopez, an analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research, sums it up succinctly, "Mory just isn't trying. I don't see any zeal." In an industry as competitive and changing as rapidly as computer networking, lack of zeal is almost as deadly as a lack of profits.

To: Maverick who wrote (1170)	2/12/1998 6:56:00 AM
From: Neil H	Respond to of 1629

Ascend Forbes article Part 4 On the block? The unstated strategy of top management at Ascend seems to be to sit back, bring in professional managers like Ashby to quietly patch up the holes and wait to be bought out. After all, almost in spite of itself, Ascend isn't doing that poorly. The company has worked out the bugs that plagued its latest products, and the Cascade merger is starting to pay dividends, accounting for nearly 40% of Ascend's fourth-quarter sales. All in all, the company looks to be on course to meet Wall Street's expectations for 1998. All in all, the company looks to be on course to meet Wall Street's expectations for 1998. And with $600 million in cash, great cash flow, an exploding industry and a stock price in the low 30s, Ascend looks tempting. Possible bidders could include big voice players like Lucent Technologies, Nortel and Eriksson who are interested in the convergence of voice and data networks. Even computer makers like Compaq could be players, as a way of moving into the higher margin network space. Ascend refuses to comment directly on takeover speculation. But asked how he would react to being acquired, Ejabat states unequivocally, "If the offer is right, I would not react negatively."