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

To: djane who wrote (51737)	8/6/1998 2:32:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

8/3/98 SF Chronicle. Sagawa (Bernstein) talks up ASND sfgate.com CISCO SYSTEMS/STOCK OF THE WEEK Peter Sinton Monday, August 3, 1998 HEADQUARTERS: San Jose BUSINESS: Cisco is the global leader in equipment used to link computers in networks. It helps large corporations, government and educational institutions connect multiple computer systems at many locations. It also serves Internet service providers, cable companies and other telecommunications carriers as well as small and medium-sized businesses that need their own data networks or connections to the Internet. BACKGROUND: Since becoming a public company is 1990, Cisco's annual revenues have increased more than a hundred-fold from $69 million to more than $8 billion. Analysts expect the company to keep growing at close to 30 percent during the next five years. Cisco's shares have doubled since last September. And Fortune Magazine's current special-investor's issue ranked Cisco as one of ''10 stocks you can love forever.'' 52-week High/Low: $104.50 (7/ 21//98)/$45.42 (10/28/97 Friday's close: $95.75 Chris Stix, analyst, SG Cowen Securities, Boston. Rating: Strong buy Cisco leads in most fast-growing data networking segments. Close to 40 percent of its revenue now comes from the explosive growth in the LAN (local area network) switch market. The recent acquisition of NetSpeed as well as Cisco's cable-modem initiatives position the company well. Its recent purchase of Summa Four extends its capability to move voice messages to data networks. Business is strong in North America and Europe though Asia is likely to be weak. The company is exceptionally strong on product and sales execution. Its sales force of about 4,500 is about 50 percent larger than 3Com's. About 30 percent of revenues come from communications service providers, which bodes well for 1999. And AT&T's decision to merge with TCI has provided Cisco with yet another opportunity because AT&T has selected Cisco to provide cable modem equipment for TCI's cable network. Cisco also is about to staff up its home-networking initiative to connect multiple PCs and other devices in the home and send voice, video and data over existing home phone lines. The company will announce its earnings tomorrow. Our estimate is $517.8 million net income (48 cents per diluted share) on $2.37 billion in revenue for the past quarter. Our 12-month target price is $110, based on Cisco's valuation compared with other industry leaders such as Microsoft and Lucent. Paul Sagawa, analyst, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., N.Y. Rating: Market perform (Neutral) Cisco has strong management and is a very aggressive competitor. But I see the company entering a period where the challenges are greater than in the past, and the company's stock is likely to perform in line with the S&P 500 index. Earnings will be very good (for the past quarter and year). But 60 percent of revenues come from routers and other products sold directly to corporate customers and institutions. This market is much more price competitive (with companies like 3Com and Bay Networks slashing prices). This market also is not growing as fast as products for telecommunications carriers, where gross profit margins generally are more than 60 percent. Competitors like Ascend Communications, which is a pure play in this growth part of the business, sell for a lower price /earnings multiple than Cisco. Cisco is getting into a new product category called layer 3 routing switches, which cost about half as much as routers but can do many of the same things. These products have nice profit margins, but they could cannibalize Cisco's sales of routers. Also, the convergence of voice and data networks puts the company on a collision course with Lucent, Nortel and other telecommunications giants. The overlap among these companies is small today, but this could change in five years. Cisco investors could face an earnings disappointment in the future, and that could hurt the stock, which is selling at 55 times next year's estimated earnings. c1998 San Francisco Chronicle Page B2

To: djane who wrote (51737)	8/6/1998 2:41:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

ASND as a top holding of Invesco investor.msn.com 3. Invesco Dynamics (FIDYX): This durable fund, around since 1967, has failed to beat the Wilshire Mid-Cap Growth Index in only two of the last 10 years, and that was before the current team of Tim Miller and Tom Wald began taking over three years ago. Morningstar ranks the portfolio among the top 3% of all funds in its category. The strategy is pure growth. The duo pay as much as 23% more than the average market multiple for earnings, cash flow and book value, but they harvest earnings that are 29% better. They make big sector bets -- currently overweight in services and technology, sharply underweight in health care and consumer staples -- and supplement core long-term holdings with opportunistic trading plays, leading to above-average turnover of 200%-plus. Top holdings include technology names like Maxim Integrated Products (MXIM), PeopleSoft (PSFT) and Ascend Communications (ASND), along with Tele-Communications Inc. (TCOMA) and Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL).

To: djane who wrote (51737)	8/6/1998 2:44:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

UUNET takes SLAs to a new limit [Shows nice confidence in ASND equipment] nwfusion.com By Denise Pappalardo Network World Fusion, 8/4/98 WorldCom's UUNET Technologies today announced new service-level agreements (SLA) that will offer users network availability, minimum latency and proactive network outage notification guarantees. Pushing the envelope on SLAs, UUNET is now offering its dedicated frame relay, 56K bit/sec, T-1, T-3 and OC-3 Internet access customers 100% network availability guarantee. This guarantee means that if UUNET is unavailable for 30 seconds, users will receive a one-day service credit up to one hour. And this guarantee also covers the users local access connection. This is one of the most aggressive SLAs available today. UUNET also is promising that customers will not experience more than 85 msec round-trip latency over its domestic network. And for traffic that travels internationally through UUNET's New York-based hub to London, the ISP is guaranteeing users will not experience more than of 120 msec of round-trip latency. But hold on to your purse strings: while 85 msec is one of the most aggressive minimum latency guarantees available today, UUNET is not backing up its guarantees with adequate compensation. UUNET customers will only receive a one-day service credit if UUNET does not meet its latency guarantee for two consecutive months. But 60 consecutive days of less-than-robust service is too long for most business users. UUNET is trying to a take a more proactive approach when it comes to network outage notifications. The ISP is guaranteeing that customers will be notified of a network outage within 15 minutes of the event. If UUNET does not meet this guarantee, users will be credited a full day of service.

To: djane who wrote (51737)	8/6/1998 2:47:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

Uunet Unveils Service-Level Agreements techweb.com (08/05/98; 10:15 a.m. ET) By Salvatore Salamone, InternetWeek Uunet Technologies, WorldCom's Internet subsidiary, introduced Tuesday new service-level agreements for its frame relay, dedicated 56-kilobit-per-second, T1, T3, and OC-3 Internet-access services. The SLAs are available for U.S. customers and U.S. customers purchasing leased-line access in its multinational service program. The SLAs include guarantees on network availability and latency, as well as on the time it takes to install access lines, and they offer notification when SLAs are not met. Specifically, Uunet is guaranteeing: 100 percent availability of the Uunet backbone as well as the Uunet-ordered customer-access circuit; average monthly latency of no more than 85 millisecond (ms) roundtrip within Uunet's backbone in the contiguous United States and of no more than 120 ms between New York and Uunet's international gateway hub in London; proactive outage notification that guarantees customer notification by Uunet operations within 15 minutes of an outage; and installation by a quoted install date, which will be no more than 40 business days for frame relay, 56-Kbps, and T1 customers, and 60 business days for T3 customers in the United States. If these conditions are not met, Fairfax, Va.-based Uunet will automatically reimburse companies. Uunet said it will give customers one day's credit for every hour or fraction thereof of downtime. If Uunet does not meet the latency guarantee for two consecutive months, all frame relay, dedicated 56-Kbps, T1, T3, and OC-3 customers are issued a credit of one day's service fee. If guaranteed installation intervals are not met, Uunet will give customers a credit for half the installation service fee. The new SLAs are available now for U.S. customers with term commitments of at least one year, and will be available in September for U.S. customers purchasing leased-line access in its multinational service program with term commitments of at least one year. The multinational service program includes customers that have two or more connections where Uunet has local operations. The exact terms are available at uu.net. Related Stories: Uunet Offers Widespread 56K Modem Access ISPs May Charge Local, Long Distance Rates For Net Access, Uunet Says

To: djane who wrote (51737)	8/6/1998 2:49:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

NORTEL, QWEST HOT ON AVICI'S TERABIT SWITCH boardwatch.internet.com Nortel announced May 5 that Qwest Communications agreed to test the new terabit switch router (TSR). The product, announced the same day by Avici Systems, is designed to allow carriers to deploy IP services over their existing fiber networks in a cost-effective manner. On April 14, Nortel and Avici said they are collaborating to develop the first carrier-grade terabit IP network. Avici said it has designed a switch/routing platform that is highly fault-tolerant and highly scaleable - from just a few hundred megabits to multiple terabits per second. By allowing native IP traffic to travel on existing fiber-optic, Frame Relay or ATM networks, the TSR offers carriers flexibility in protocols. The TSR can combine multiple trunks into a large virtual trunk of up to 160 gigabits per fiber, even if the original trunks are of different wavelengths or are traveling diverse routes. With scaleability from 2.5 to 160 gigabits per fiber, Nortel says its optical networks are already capable of supporting the TSR with maximum fiber capacity at minimum cost per bit. Qwest is using Nortel's optical networking, tandem switching, and intelligent networking systems in its 16,285 mile network. In 1997, Qwest created the nation's first native IP coast-to-coast, 10 gigabit-per-second network using Nortel optical networking technology. If maximized for two terabit per second transmission over 24 fiber pairs, the network is capable of delivering the entire literary contents of the Library of Congress from coast-to-coast in 20 seconds, according to a press release.