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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jhild who wrote (14392)	3/31/1998 11:20:00 PM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 22053

Cisco Says Latin America Sales Could Grow 40% or More in 1998 Boca Raton, Florida, March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Cisco Systems Inc. said sales in Latin America could grow at least 40 percent this year, spurred by the growing number of consumers and companies being connected to the Internet. ''It's growing dramatically faster than the rest of the world,'' said John Chambers, chief executive of San Jose, California- based Cisco, which makes equipment to help link computer networks to each other and the Internet. Last year its business in Latin America grew more than 50 percent, he said. Latin America is one of the world's fastest-growing areas of Internet usage. Microsoft Corp., which sells software and computer systems, said yesterday its Latin America business would also grow more than 40 percent this year, making it Microsoft's fastest-growing region as well. Chambers, in Boca Raton to attend Microsoft's annual Latin America Enterprise Solutions Conference, said Cisco's Latin American sales haven't been affected by the financial troubles in Asia that have slowed growth in some Latin American countries. ''We have not seen any measurable impact in Latin America, North America or Europe,'' he said. Cisco's Asia business, however, got clobbered this year as currency devaluations and widespread loan defaults there have raised the cost of borrowing and of importing goods, stifling economic growth in the region. ''That's been challenging for us and other players in the industry,'' Chambers said. ''That was the segment that was growing over 100 percent for us and now all of a sudden it's actually shrinking.'' Growing Market Chambers' speech yesterday to the group of Latin dealers, re- sellers and government officials attending the conference discussed how important the home market will be for information technology companies. ''You're going to see many players in the industry, including Cisco, aggressively move into the home market,'' he said in the interview. Telephone companies and cable and Internet providers will target individual consumers more in the coming years as these technologies become less expensive and more within consumers' reach, Chambers said. Some companies will probably even go so far as to make telephone voice service free if a consumer buys other, more expensive services. ''You're going to see the way that companies make money change as they go forward,'' Chambers said. ''It would not surprise us to see a movement toward voice being free.'' o~~~ O