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Technology Stocks : Newbridge Networks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pat mudge who wrote (5417)	7/3/1998 7:09:00 AM
From: Glenn McDougall	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18016

Newbridge sales exec quits post Kanata firm in battle for U.S. market share Andrew McIntosh The Ottawa Citizen The top sales executive in the United States for Newbridge Networks Corp. has left the Kanata-based company amid suggestions that the equipment maker is losing ground south of the border to rival Cisco Systems Inc. Newbridge confirmed yesterday that Richard Berger, its top U.S. sales executive, left the telecommunications-equipment maker less than a month after the firm's new president, Alan Lutz, took the helm in early June. A Newbridge spokesman emphasized that Mr. Berger was not fired. After discussions with Mr. Lutz and Michael Pascoe, a Newbridge executive vice-president and general manager for the Americas, the spokesman said, Mr. Berger decided to leave to pursue other career opportunities. Mr. Pascoe has assumed Mr. Berger's duties until a successor is hired. Duncan Stewart, a technology portfolio manager and partner at Tera Capital of Toronto, said the move is minor -- but likely the beginning of a broader shake-up. "Mr. Lutz has a reputation as being a guy who can make these moves when they are necessary," Mr. Stewart said. "It is unlikely he was brought in by the brass at Newbridge to carry out just one." Other industry analysts such as David Beck, a technology analyst and vice-president at TD Securities Inc., Toronto Dominion Bank's brokerage arm, echoed those remarks, saying more changes are likely in the works. Newbridge spokesman Paul Goyette declined to comment on the analysts' speculation that there will be an additional shake-up within the company. An executive from an Arizona-based market research firm, Cahners In-Stat Group, told Dow Jones that Newbridge's worldwide share of sales in the ATM-WAN (asynchronous transfer mode and wide-area network) markets is growing, but levelling off compared with that of its rivals. The firm reported that Newbridge's market share in terms of sales has increased to 23.1 per cent in the first quarter of 1998 from 19.8 per cent during the same period in 1996. In contrast, Cahners In-Stat Group found that Cisco's market share of the ATM-WAN market jumped to 29.6 per cent from 12.1 per cent in the period. Mr. Goyette disputed those numbers, saying that rival research from DataQuest International places Newbridge ahead of Cisco in the market and that figures from other firms also put Newbridge ahead. Several research analysts have recently put new buy recommendations on Newbridge stock after watching it sink to a low of $26.75 from its 52-week high of $95 last October on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Newbridge stock sagged after it reported three poor quarters and big losses, stemming from its botched 1997 acquisition of UB Networks Inc. and slowing sales of its older line of TDM (time-division multiplexer) products. It subsequently recovered to the $40 range but has dipped back and yesterday closed down 20 cents at $34.95.