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

To: Winston Kim who wrote (51548)	8/4/1998 1:37:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Bless you, Winston. Please do.

To: Winston Kim who wrote (51548)	8/4/1998 1:47:00 PM
From: Jan Crawley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

I suggest to the longs sell now if you have a lot of profits as this stock is going lower. I am shorting this puppy as 40 is possible next month. Be careful, $60 is likely too!!!

To: Winston Kim who wrote (51548)	8/4/1998 1:53:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 61433

Cowen maintains strong buy. Nice FY99 raise from $1.62 to $1.72 12:00 -- 13:00 ET (Updated throughout the hour)****** Ascend Communications (ASND) 47 5/8 +13/16: --UPDATE-- SG Cowen raises earnings estimates and price target on wide area networking solutions provider after company announces deal to acquire Stratus Computer; raises price target from $55 to $60; maintains "strong buy" and adjusts FY98 EPS from $1.21 to $1.20 a share and raises FY99 from $1.62 to $1.72 a share.....

To: Winston Kim who wrote (51548)	8/4/1998 2:00:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

Must-read Paul Johnson comments at BARS conference [Great implications for ASND] thestreet.com Silicon Valley: Robbie Stephens New Millennium Confab: Forget New Technology, Let's Watch TV By Suzanne Galante, Jeffrey Hoffman and Cory Johnson Staff Reporters 8/4/98 12:36 PM ET Johnson's Jonesing When Nietzsche declared, "God is dead," some thought he was nuts. So when author and BancAmerica Robertson Stephens telecommunications analyst Paul Johnson says that AT&T (T:NYSE) will be out of business and MCI (MCIC:Nasdaq) is irrelevant, one might think that he, too, is out to lunch. According to Johnson, co-author of The Gorilla Game, changes in telecom technology now under way are just as significant as the 1984 breakup of Ma Bell and the advent of MCI. "The events of the next few years will determine the path of services for decades. We're at the beginning of a 20-year cycle," he said. "The events of the next few years will determine the path of services for decades." The transition from circuit-based to packet-based networks is at the heart of Johnson's argument. With current technology, when one makes a voice call, a dedicated circuit is established. That circuit stays open for the duration of the call, even during pauses in the conversation. With digital packets, in contrast, a conversation is chopped up into bursts of data and reassembled at the other end. Packet-based networks can carry a lot more information. Now, data traffic is the overwhelming voice on the world's communication systems. The problem, argued Johnson, is that circuit-based networks built over the past three decades aren't up to handling the explosion of data and demand for new services, such as video calling. "Any company that wants to be in business 10 years from now has to build a new network, a packet-based network," he said. Meanwhile, companies like Williams (WMB:NYSE), Qwest (QWST:Nasdaq) and Frontier (FRO:NYSE) [Nice ASND customers] are outpacing old-line telecom firms in building such networks. Indeed, Qwest will soon have more carrying capacity than AT&T. "AT&T could be out of business unless they move quickly," he said. This seismic shift in technology will also drive the development of a new generation of equipment makers, threatening established players like Lucent (LU:NYSE) and Northern Telecom (NT:NYSE).[And people think LU won't buy ASND...] So what does all of this mean for investors? According to Johnson, the way to play this change is to buy companies successful in fiber optics, which forms the heart of the new network, such as Tellabs (TLAB:Nasdaq), which is buying Ciena (CIEN:Nasdaq), and component maker Uniphase (UNPH:Nasdaq). In switching, he favors Ascend (ASND:Nasdaq), Newbridge Networks (NN:NYSE) and Cisco (CSCO:Nasdaq). (Robbie Stephens has had an underwriting relationship with Lucent, Nortel, Tellabs and Ciena. Johnson has buy recommendations on Ascend, Cisco and Newbridge.) c 1998 TheStreet.com, All Rights Reserved.

To: Winston Kim who wrote (51548)	8/4/1998 2:12:00 PM
From: Mark Duper	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Welcome to the thread Winston. My friends call me Winston, too. - I solve problems. Speaking of problems, I've got one for ya. What do you think is going to happen to ASND when Nasdaq starts heading North again? What do you think will happen when the S&P managers all of a sudden, get an over load of Subscriptions instead of redemptions. You do know that ASND is part of all those mutual funds now, right? I want you to go out and buy a Time magazine this week, there is a very interesting article I want you to read about the future of voice and data integration. I think you'll change your mind about the future of ASND's stock price. Again, welcome. Sup.

To: Winston Kim who wrote (51548)	8/4/1998 2:39:00 PM
From: garrick le	Respond to of 61433

ASND to be 50 on August expiration . If you short at 49 7/8 it makes sense for a good day trade. CSCO earning tomorrow is going to lift ASND higher,IMHO. GL

To: Winston Kim who wrote (51548)	8/4/1998 2:59:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 61433

WorldCom and Bell Atlantic Ready Huge Debt Offerings [Telecom equipment suppliers must be salivating...] interactive.wsj.com By HEATHER BOURBEAU, SILVIA ASCARELLI and GAUTAM NAIK Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Telecommunications companies are set to break two records in the corporate-bond market this week. WorldCom Inc., Jackson, Miss., Monday began presentations to offer as much as $5 billion in debt, which would be the biggest-ever corporate bond sale. And Bell Atlantic, New York, Monday started marketing what Securities Data Co. says is the biggest-ever exchangeable-note deal, a $3 billion sale of bonds convertible in four years to shares of Britain's Cable & Wireless Communications PLC. That company was formed last year through the merger of four U.K. cable operators. Bell Atlantic holds 278 million shares, or 18.5% of the company, and Cable & Wireless PLC, the London telecommunications company, holds 53%. Bell Atlantic's exchangable-note deal is expected to be priced in the next two weeks. If WorldCom sells as much as $5 billion of bonds, which is expected, it would easily surpass a $4.3 billion sale in May 1997 by Norfolk Southern Corp., the biggest corporate-debt sale so far. A 1989 sale by RJR Holdings Capital had a face amount of $6.1 billion but raised only $4 billion because some of the bonds were sold at a discount, according to Securities Data. Some investors expect a good reception for WorldCom. "It's a difficult market, but WorldCom has a good story and it's in an industry that's growing by leaps and bounds," said Marion Boucher Soper, telecommunications analyst at Bear, Stearns & Cos. Indeed, other corporate-bond offerings have been suffering in recent days as investors have waited to participate in WorldCom's offering. Some portfolio managers say the generally weak market could force a relatively low price for WorldCom bonds, which translates to higher yields. "There is some momentum on [WorldCom's] credit side, and it's a big deal that's going to have to come cheaply," said Andy Palmer, who helps manage $2 billion of bonds at ASB Capital Management. WorldCom will use the deal's proceeds to refinance bank borrowings incurred to pay $7 billion to British Telecommunications PLC for its 20% stake in MCI Communications Corp. WorldCom and lead underwriter Salomon Smith Barney, a unit of Travelers Group, declined to comment on the deal, which is expected to price late Wednesday or Thursday. As for the Bell Atlantic deal, the company tentatively plans to offer seven-year bonds that could be exchanged for shares in Cable & Wireless Communications beginning July 1, 2002. Bell Atlantic hopes to account for its proposed merger with GTE Corp. as a pooling-of-interest transaction. That prohibits Bell Atlantic from shedding any significant assets for at least two years after the close of the merger, a spokesman for Bell Atlantic said. The company expects the GTE merger to close in June 2000. Bell Atlantic's technique is increasingly used by companies to sell minority interests. It allows them to raise money more cheaply than a traditional bond offering. An exchangeable bond often lets a company cash in on its ownership in another company while delaying the payment of capital-gains taxes until the bonds are converted into shares. Under an immediate sale, the gains would be subject to capital-gains tax immediately. The bigger the gains, the more valuable the exchangeable-bond strategy becomes. American depositary receipts of Cable & Wireless Communications fell $5.0625, or 9.5%, to $48.4375 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading Monday. It fell on an arbitrage play between the current share price and the expected pricing of the bonds. The price for converting the bonds into shares is tentatively set at a 28% premium to a still-undetermined closing share price. By temporarily depressing the share price, investors are lowering the final price they'll have to pay to acquire the shares via the bond offering. Cable & Wireless Communications said it welcomed the Bell Atlantic announcement. "It's a litmus test for investor confidence in CWC," a spokesman said. Warburg Dillon Read, the investment-banking arm of UBS and bookrunner in the transaction, declined to comment. The offering will be sold globally, including to selected U.S. investors under Rule 144a. Return to top of page Copyright c 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.