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

To: Sector Investor who wrote (36382)	2/25/1998 9:49:00 AM
From: Tim Luke	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 61433

19hrs. of trading left until asnd kisses 40.

To: Sector Investor who wrote (36382)	2/25/1998 5:03:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 61433

What about the answers, Glenn? I thought they were good. No mention of "I" word and suggestion of privatisation of Social Security fund. I thought the answers were excellent considering the stupidty of many of the question. In particular, the discussion about the change in wealthy descrepency in the US during the last few years. The answer was the equity market (particularly the stock market). Those owning stocks profited and those that did not own stocks did not. The next question; what are we to do about that?????? I certainly am not interested in giving my shares to someone because they have none. Sheeshh....socialization. Glenn

To: Sector Investor who wrote (36382)	2/25/1998 6:22:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

2/25/98 Article in "Undervalued Stock Ideas." See the bolded section on ASND. "We believe these companies trade at reasonable valuations relative to their respective growth rates." exchange2000.com In this Edition * Why the Big 3 (INTC), (MSFT) and (CSCO)? * Checkpoint Systems * Green Tree Financial * U.S. Office Products * Highlights on SI: Compaq stacks the DEC 02/25/98 Why the Big 3 (INTC), (MSFT) and (CSCO)? Randall Williams-Gurian editor of Undervalued Stock Ideas, cyberspace.com provides the following commentary. A 1 year subscription is $89. You may receive a FREE trial copy of his publication and details can be found at the above web site. Below is his write up. Why the Big 3 (INTC), (MSFT) and (CSCO)? "There are a number of characteristics common to the Big 3 which account for their continued success in the market place. We believe these critical success factors can continue to propel the Big 3 stock prices higher and that these attributes can be used to help identify other winners in the technology arena. Microsoft, Intel and Cisco all have performed remarkably well over the last 5-10 years. In 1998, these stocks have continued their upward ascent: up 20% 31% and 18% respectively. What makes these companies so special and should technology investors continue to put new money into the Big 3? We believe the following 4 characteristics account for a majority of the success of the Big 3. The Big 3 dominate their respective markets, have excellent management, use effective marketing strategies, and invest substantial amounts of money in R&D. Dominate market position -Microsoft, Intel and Cisco all dominate their respective markets. Microsoft market share in the desk top operating software market is greater than 90%, Intel owns over 80% of the market for microprocessors which run personal computers, and Cisco Systems is the leading provider of routers used in creating corporate networks. Cisco has leveraged its position in the router market and expanded its product offerings through key acquisitions resulting in trouble for its 2 largest competitors Bay Networks and 3COM. Cisco is now the dominate network equipment company. Why own Bay or 3COM when you know Cisco is almost a slam dunk to deliver on its earnings? Excellent Management - What do Bill Gates, Andy Grove and John Chambers all have in common? They all know how to create shareholder value. Over the last 5 years Microsoft stock is up 40% on an annualized basis, Intel stock is up 41% and Cisco has turned in a 31% average annualized return. We believe a majority of these returns are attributed to the leadership by the Big 3's CEOs. Investors in the Big 3 should feel confident knowing that each of these CEOs have made great business decisions for their shareholders in the past and should continue to do so in the future. Microsoft was able to turn on a dime and literally almost put Netscape out of the web browser market and now has a significant presence on the internet. Andy Grove and Intel's top management handled their microprocessor math error flaw almost without missing a step. Cisco has been able to with stand the challenge from a number of its competitors by purchasing and quickly integrating over 21 companies over the last 3 years which control up and coming new network equipment technologies. Shrewd marketing -The Big 3 all have incredible marketing savvy. Each works with its customers to insure they are on track to meet future product needs and each has a knack for establishing critical business alliances. Microsoft is feverishly working on its next generation operating system for both the desk top (Windows 98) and the enterprise market (Windows NT), Intel is working with Hewlett Packard on its next generation microprocessor code named Merced, and Cisco continues it aggressive acquisition plan with its 2 most recent purchases including WheelGroup and LightSpeed International. Heavy investments in R&D - Microsoft spent over $1.2 billion dollars on research and development in its first half of fiscal 1998, and is on track to spend over $2.0 billion by the end of fiscal 1998 (June). Microsoft's R&D activities have allowed the company to become a dominate player on the internet and its Windows NT software is now in a position to take on UNIX for the lead in enterprise computing operating software market. Intel spent $2.3 billion dollars in fiscal 1997 on research and development which is almost 5 times more than its closest competitor, Advanced Micro Devices. Intel's R&D efforts allow the company to continue to reduce the prices of its microprocessors making it extremely difficult for its competition. Intel's 2 largest competitors, AMD and Cyrix (which is now part of National Semiconductor) really have only been able to compete in the low end processor market targeting PCs for under $1,000. This threat to Intel is over blown, and Intel continues to rollout more advanced versions of its Pentium processor for the high-end corporate computing market. These higher-end processors carry more favorable margins. Cisco's investment in R&D is the result of their aggressive acquisition strategy. Cisco finds companies with new innovate network technologies and essentially pays for their R&D efforts through the acquisition price. In most cases they retain the R&D engineers from the acquired company. Below is a list of well known technology companies which have some if not all of the characteristics of the Big 3. We believe these companies trade at reasonable valuations relative to their respective growth rates. ú Texas Instruments (TXN) owns over 40% of the digital signal processor market and continues to reduce their reliance on the DRAM market. TXN is also spending a tremendous amount of money on their DSP research and development effort. The DSP market is expected to expand ten fold to over $50 billion over the next decade. ú Applied Materials (AMAT) maintains the dominate position in the market for semiconductor capital equipment with an estimate 25% market share. Applied is run by one of the most respected CEOs in the technology industry, James Morgan. CEO Morgan has been at the helm since 1977 or for more than 20 years, and during his tenor the company's stock has done extremely well. ú Dell Computer (DELL) meets the above criteria due to the company's advantage in the direct order PC market. Over 90% of Dell's sales are made directly to business and government agencies and it sports' the highest average sales price in the PC industry. Dell has the highest inventory turnover in the industry and its build to order production method generates a ton of cash. Plus why bet against Michael Dell his stock is up over 1500% in the last 5 years. ú Ascend Communications (ASND) has the top spot in providing high speed wide area network products and high-performance internet Protocal (P) switching products. Ascend's products are used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and telecommunications carries to build wide area networks. Ascend's recently completed acquisition of Cascade Communications allows Ascend to expand its product offerings in the ATM market to phone carriers. ú Western Digital (WDC) supremacy in the disk drive market served its shareholders well until the recent collapse in the hard drive market. WDC has a 20% stake in the market for desk top drives and is moving quickly into the enterprise storage market with a number of new product offerings. WDC's CEO Charles A. Haggerty is top notch and has managed the company through prior boom and bust cycles. The bottom line is if you own the Big 3 continue to do so, and if you are frustrated because you don't, then we believe there is still time to join the party. If the Big 3 seem expensive and go against your strict valuation criteria, then we recommend taking a close look at the runner ups mentioned above. More information on these stocks and technology investing can be found by visiting our web site @ cyberspace.com; Next Page