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

To: djane who wrote (46215)	5/7/1998 10:46:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

Access vendors make modest strides [ASND VoIP product info] By Scott Berinato, PC Week Online 05.07.98 1:01 pm ET zdnet.com LAS VEGAS-Several WAN access vendors have used the NetWorld+Interop stage this week not to make blockbuster announcements but rather to tweak their product lines. Ascend Communications Inc., Shiva Corp., Adtran Inc. and Red Creek Communications Inc. were among the vendors unveiling enhancements at the show. Ascend, of Alameda, Calif., built on its MultiVoice voice-data convergence strategy by announcing a partnership with software vendor eFusion Inc. eFusion, of Beaverton, Ore., makes voice-over-IP applications to complement Ascend's recently announced MultiVoice Gateway hardware. The first product to be included with MultiVoice will be an Internet call-waiting application. The application notifies users on screen when there is an incoming call and provides options for handling it (including answering the call, sending it to voice mail or forwarding the call), officials of both companies said. Future applications will include "push to talk," which will enable users to click a button on a Web page that links them to a service representative. Ascend will begin integrating the applications in the third quarter. Abner Germanow, an analyst with International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass., said this kind of integration will be necessary for voice over IP to succeed. "You can't add this voice service because it saves you money if you take away all of the features-the call waiting, the caller ID, for example. Users just won't do it," Germanow said. For its part, Shiva, of Bedford, Mass., added a LanRover switch to its line of access servers. The LanRover Access Switch DPS (Dual Power Supply) adds redundancy, advanced cooling and other utility-conscious features to the platform. A Java-based configuration tool has been added as well. It will also integrate with Hewlett-Packard Co.'s OpenView, company officials said. Continuing its tight focus on business access and VPNs (virtual private networks), Shiva also added Entrust Technologies Ltd.'s Entrust as a certificate authority option for users with thousands of digital certificates to manage. Shiva has its own certificate authority, but is partnering with Entrust and Verisign Inc. for higher-end certificate management, officials said. Available May 15, the LanRover DPS will cost $8,000. For users who don't need redundancy and cooling features, the price of the older LanRover Access Switch has been lowered to $5,000. For users strapped for bandwidth on their wide-area leased lines, Adtran, of Huntsville, Ala., has added a T-3 access device. The T3SU300 provides 45M-bps throughput on an "unchannelized" line, meaning the T-3 is one large pipe and not divided into 28 T-1 lines. Adtran officials said users adding many T-1 lines could find it more economical to scale up to T-3 even if that's too much bandwidth right now. The device will start at $4,245, officials said. VPN vendor Red Creek concentrated on the business side of the house at N+I. First, the Newark, Calif., company received a $6 million investment from Cisco Systems Inc. The cash will go toward the development of IP Security and encryption on both companies' platforms, Red Creek officials said. Cisco uses RedCreek's VPN technology in its Pix firewall. Red Creek also announced a partnership with iPass Inc., an Internet roaming company that manages a network of ISPs (Internet service providers) providing local numbers to users on the road. A partnership with ISP TCG Cerfnet was also announced, in which Cerfnet will use Red Creek's Ravlin line of VPN devices in its EQ-VPN service, officials said. Last on Red Creek's docket: Version 3.0 of Ravlin security software. The new software adds support for X.509 digital certificates. Ascend can be reached at www.ascend.com. eFusion is at www.efusion.com. Shiva can be reached at www.shiva.com. Adtran is at www.adtran.com. Red Creek is at www.redcreek.com. Send E-mail to PC Week \| Copyright notice

To: djane who wrote (46215)	5/7/1998 11:21:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

Western Europe emerging as hot PC market By Michael Kanellos Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM May 7, 1998, 12:50 p.m. PT news.com PC vendors have traditionally viewed the United States and Asia as their strongest growth markets, but favorable economic conditions in Western Europe are increasingly causing manufacturers to look at the Old World as a focal point for sales. Lower computer prices, revised tax laws, and the relative weakness of Asian economies, among other factors, will likely cause an increase in PC purchases by both European consumers and businesses over the next five year, according to a report from International Data Communications (IDC). Economic strength in England, Germany, and France (Europe's three largest markets) will also fuel demand, although growth will be tempered by sinking system prices. Europe's growth will come to 13.9 percent this year and average 10.4 percent through 2002, IDC predicts. While lower than comparable growth rates for the United States and lower than the long-term growth rate for Japan, these numbers are stronger than European sales of the past. In fact, increased sales will boost worldwide figures and have already caused IDC to move its upwardly revise its sales projections. "The most significant upward adjustment in unit volume was made for Western Europe, which at the end of 1997 emerged form its period of dormant growth," IDC said. The surge in purchasing has begun already. "Europe grew by 22 percent in Q1 compared to Q1 the year before," according to Roger Kay, computer analyst with IDC. North American sales grew by 14 percent for the same period while worldwide sales growth came to 11 percent. PC sales for Europe for 1997 as a whole grew 14.6 percent over sales in 1996. As a result, IDC has revised its forecasts for Western Europe: Computer sales are expected to grow 13.9 percent in 1998, up from earlier projections of 10.7 percent. The compound growth rate for the years 1998-2002 has similarly been raised to 10.4 percent, up from an earlier projection of 7.7 percent growth for the period 1997-2001. Comparatively, the U.S. will see sales increase by 15.4 percent this year and 11.4 percent on average over the five-year period. Japan, meanwhile, will see sales grow at 7.8 percent this year but at 13.8 percent over the five-year period. Of all regions, Asia-Pacific shows the strongest contrasts. Sales in the region will grow by only 6.9 percent this year because of its economic crisis, but will expand by a chart-topping 20.8 percent average over the five-year period. Of course, unit growth will be tempered by a much slower growth in revenues. Declining system prices mean that revenues will only grow by 6 and 7.7 percent, respectively, in Europe and the United States next year; revenues will decline in the Asian markets. And, although sales in Asia-Pacific will generate double-digit revenue growth over the five-year average, revenue growth in the United States, Europe, and Japan will all remain in single digits on average.

To: djane who wrote (46215)	5/7/1998 11:33:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

OT Let's see, ASND valuation using 30PE on year 2003 earnings -- maybe about $500 or so? See below from herring.com herring.com Excerpt from "Internet stocks in denial" Here's a question for you. What do Yahoo (YHOO), Infoseek (SEEK), Excite (XCIT), DoubleClick (DCLK), Amazon.com (AMZN), America Online (AOL), CMG Information Services (CMGI), and OzEmail () have in common -- besides all being Internet stocks setting new records for stock appreciation against negative earnings? Give up? They are now all the proud owners of Buy or Strong Buy recommendations from Wall Street's top Internet analysts. To boot, each stock enjoys a rating of Buy or better from more than half of the analysts. Taken as a group, the eight Internet stocks listed above have 46 Buy recommendations and 11 Strong Buy recommendations out of a total of 78 ratings on the group as a whole. How do you spell "bullish" again? B-u-b-b-l-e. While we know the party line on most of these stocks by now, that Wall Street loves them not for earnings but rather for branding, market identity, dynamic growth rates, and mind share, we couldn't help but quiz David Levy, Internet analyst with Furman Selz, on just what the attraction is. "We are using a 30 times multiple on year 2003 earnings to predict our target price," he says. Earnings? In the year 2003? "What, you think that's too far out?" says Mr. Levy of on his recent initiation of coverage of OzEmail with a Strong Buy, a company he refers to as 'Australia's own AOL." "Let me tell you something, 2003 is nothing," he continues. "Just take a look at some other industries." All right, let's. "Competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC)? They don't even have earnings. And biotech? Biotech doesn't even have revenues. And besides, we're discounting OzEmail 30 percent compared to comparable valuations we placed on Earthlink or Mindspring. We've got a 40 target, and unlike the others, OzEmail is even profitable." Oh, whatever.