To: Worswick who wrote (4224 ) 6/5/1998 2:47:00 PM From: MikeM54321 Read Replies (2) | Respond to
*** Way Off Topic ***Cisco Systems John Chambers is a great leader. He seems to always ahead of all other true data networkers. He knew the very large enterprise, telcos, CLEC's, ILEC's, baby bells, etc.(whatever you want to call them) market was going to be big! He headed towards them long before the other data networkers caught on. Only problem I have (very short term) was his troubling announcement about 1 week ago. It's posted on this thread. But it does look strong nonetheless.Ascend Communications Mory Eljat has drifted in his role as leader, but now seems to be getting on track. Without the Cascade purchase, they would be dead today. Cascade is what will get them in the carrier class market. I think he knows where he has to go, but isn't good about announcing it to his company or the world.Fore Systems has always been, and always will be big on ATM technology. Fore has languished for years while the standards battle went on. Now that it's pretty clear the telcos can no longer sit on their butts and have chosen ATM as the way to go, Fore has to benefit. But I know nothing about their CEO or execution abilities.PMC Sierra "Semiconductor" is the pure play in the data networking game (I think?). I just haven't had time to study them lately. But they are the silicon supplier to all the data networkers. So as the data networkers go, so goes Sierra. Sierra can hardly lose. But I have no idea what the fundamentals look like today. Their name never helped them because most associate PMC Sierra with Sierra Semiconductor company (old name)and with DRAM and microprocessors. Cabletron Systems maybe be a good investment because they are so down in the dumps. Craig Benson is not about to let his baby die. He hired a big wig directly from the telco world to get Cabletron on the right track. Well this CEO pointed Cabletron in the right direction and then Craig sacked him. Craig at least has his guns aimed in the right direction now, it's up to Craig to pull the trigger and hit the target. But if CS wasn't so far down, I wouldn't even consider this investment. Bay Networks Everyone says how David House is going to get Bay's "house in order," but it hasn't happened. It's only up because everyone has been talking about this company being bought for 3 years running now! I don't have a lot of hopes of Bay pulling out on their own. I think the merger between a West Coast and East Coast company was not a good idea (Wellfleet/Synoptics merger). It's been stumbling along ever since.Tellabs is interesting. They have always been a mixture of a true data networker and also a supplier to telecom of old circuit switched equipment. I'm not sure what to think? They seem to overpay for the technology to really become a true data company as opposed to a traditional voice company. But they are headed in the right direction, but it costs them a bundle to head the right way. 3Coms They are the K-mart of the data networkers and don't seem to really want to be anything else. Intel could kill them if they wanted to. But with the DOJ looking into Intel, this probably won't happen anytime soon. But will 3Com play a big part in the conversion to the new high speed data network? I doubt it. They appear to be happy being K-mart.Lucent Technologies This one is almost funny if it didn't hurt me so much. Lucent is/was a major supplier of phone gear for the "old iron" traditional circuit switched voice networks. No doubt about that. But in the last year, Lucent saw the writing on the wall and SUDDENDLY decided to become a data networking company. It was almost a marketing gimmick at first. I didn't think they were going to be sucessful. But I was wrong. I forgot if Lucent want's to be a data networking company, Lucent gets what it wants. So it just went out and almost overnight, bought their way into the business. I think as a result, Lucent doesn't have strong fundamentals anymore, but they certainly have their big foot in the door for the new networks.Newbridge Networks Could have been a major player but the CEO didn't seem to be around? I don't know what the heck happened. It just didn't appear he gave his company the direction it needed. Terrance Matthews almost seemed like he just didn't care. Rumors were his personal life was more important. I never got the impression he was a strong leader. It was like he didn't see what was coming, or did and did nothing about it? It's a puzzle to me. Northern Telecom is/was in the exact same position as Newbridge. But I believe NT will execute better in the conversion of a traditional old iron supplier to telecos, to a data network supplier to telecos. Don't know anything at all about their CEO. It's funny because right after Lucent decided to become a data company (via TV ads), NT followed suit. Though both were really old iron suppliers, NT was at least somewhat into "data" when their TV ads broke.
