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Technology Stocks : 3Com Corporation (COMS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: W.F.Rakecky who wrote (18020)	6/23/1998 8:11:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 45548

COMS: BEAR STEARNS decreased estimate for long term EPS growth from 30.00% to 20.00% per year on 05/29/98 COMS: UBS SECURITIES has reiterated estimate for fiscal year ending 05/98 of $0.75 on 06/22/98 COMS: UBS SECURITIES has reiterated estimate for fiscal year ending 05/99 of $1.27 on 06/22/98 COMS: UBS SECURITIES has reiterated estimate for quarter ending 02/99 of $0.34 on 06/22/98 COMS: UBS SECURITIES has reiterated estimate for quarter ending 05/98 of $0.19 on 06/22/98 COMS: UBS SECURITIES has reiterated estimate for quarter ending 05/99 of $0.39 on 06/22/98 COMS: UBS SECURITIES has reiterated estimate for quarter ending 08/98 of $0.25 on 06/22/98 COMS: UBS SECURITIES has reiterated estimate for quarter ending 11/98 of $0.29 on 06/22/98

To: W.F.Rakecky who wrote (18020)	6/23/1998 9:36:00 PM
From: joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 45548

W.F. >>do you recall when the advertising blitz by COMS is to begin???<< COMS has already increased their advertising quite a bit. I use my mother and father as ginnie pigs. They know absolutely nothing about tech. But they own stocks, so they go through the WSJ, Business Week, watch CNBC, read Time mag, etc. and they have seen a lot more of the 3Com name in the last month - possibly because of the Palm Pilot. But the $100million advertising add will start soon. It was in an article a few weeks ago, but I don't think they pinned an exact date. I look at the channel mags like Computer Reseller News and VAR Business and have seen the 3Com name a whole lot more in the last few months. >>What's COMS word of mouth reputation???<< With the distribution channel, they are one of the most revered. That's one of the major reasons I think they have such potential. I think that one thing investor's don't realize about COMS is how they're going to go about things. Part of that $100m will be spent on the channel guys. They are motivating the hell out of the sales force to sell their products. They are going to do an incredible amount of training on the sales channel. To me this is key, because so much of technology is so hard to understand. Setting up networks is not easy, and usually needs high-paid systems integrators, but COMS products will be built easier to use (they have this rep in the channel), and the sales force will be trained extensively by 3Com. As far as I know, this collaboration with the channel is unheard of. PLUS, they are giving the sales personnel a decent amount of profit incentive, which helps alot. I'll be listening to see how much of this 'channel attack' strategy Eric B. has done, and what his next steps are. >>Ciscos clunky but good products still seem to be the product of choice.<< Cisco's products are expensive. Their brilliant strategy was to make sure they have the full solution. This way they could hand-hold their customers through the difficult process of implementing Internets/Intranets. But, it doesn't have to be this way. COMS is bring this same strategy to the SME (small & medium sized enterprises). You can see the IBM strategy being reflected by John Chambers, since he's a veteran of IBM himself. >>Cisco sees the writing on the wall and wants to get into COMS's "rice bowl"(SOHO). What's Cisco's chances at dominating this market also???<< Seems that everything COMS does, Cisco tries to do. Even lately with the xDSL and Cable Modems. The big problem I see with Cisco is that they have to have higher margins, and aren't structured to do this...not to mention the adjustment to stock price. Look how INTC is taking a beating having to adjust to lower margins. Lower margins don't necessarily mean that a company makes less profits...DELL is living proof of this. Cisco also is very involved with getting into the telco/data network sectors, so they have their hands are full enough already. Maybe Eric can comment, since he's the Cisco expert and he also has a big stake in COMS. COMS and Cisco just don't overlap that much yet. COMS has other more serious problems than Cisco. >>COMS HAS the product but has to fight Cisco's reputation all the way.<< I don't think they have to fight Cisco that much, other wise, I wouldn't have gotten too involved with COMS. IMO, COMS just needs to let everybody know that their products are different and the best in their sphere. Later on, Cisco and COMS products will overlap more, but by then it should be known that COMS is just as good at quality, and CHEAPER, and can be hand-held by the 'channel' sales people to get customers started, and customers will then realize that they can do a lot of maintenance easier, and won't need a full time networking department like the Fortune 500 companies have. Customers won't be made to think that their totally dependent on COMS support the way Cisco does. But this is an evolving, long-term thing, that takes time educating sales people and customers. Hope you don't mind my rambling on. It helps me get my thoughts together. COMS is pretty complicated to me.