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

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (47357)	5/21/1998 5:06:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (13) \| Respond to of 61433

Brief shareholder meeting report I just got back from the ASND shareholder meeting and coffee with Pat, Dennis and Hitesh. All are very nice, non-virtual beings -- I'm not sure about myself sometimes. I'm hoping that Pat or Dennis do a full report because, frankly, I'm a lousy note taker. I also have lots of work today and can't do anything until tonight. My brief synopsis. Mory was the only speaker. He introduced the key officers and did a brief presentation on 1997 results and future strategy. Mory is very low key and seems to have a quiet confidence -ASND has landed new contracts and will announce them at the right time -In response to a question about CSCO, Mory seemed very confident, CSCO doesn't have a good WAN strategy, and they haven't seen Stratacom in any accounts. Mory later said they are good competitors and keep each other on their toes -ASND will work with all WDM vendors. -Customers aren't anxious for TNT-II yet and ASND may or may not release it this year. -Cascade integration is done and is the "best highlight of the networking industry" -In response to Q about LU/NT, Mory said they would look at all opportunities, but ASND believes it is a strong standalone company due to its technological advantage over competitors -ASND will look at making acquisitions to expand product line -New GRF will be faster than CSCO GSR -testy response about insider sales and SJ Mercury author with "short memory." Mory said officers and directors sell stock every quarter during the short window -International. Strong presence in Japan. Seeing opportunities in Europe and Latin America. Careful in the Far East. -In response to question about China, Mory said ASND sells to MPT and is the "largest access provider in China" -gross margin 64% now, plan is 63%, 25% operating margin and 20% R&D -15-30% industry growth and 10-20% ASND growth. When asked about these low numbers after his presentation, Mory said ASND is being very conservative because "we learned our lesson" last year. I look forward to summaries by Pat and Dennis as well as their corrections in case I got anything wrong. I just tried to pick out a few highlights. djane