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

To: gfr fan who wrote (55152)	10/2/1998 9:16:00 PM
From: gbh	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 61433

gfr fan (ie, COMS guy), LU's "track" record can't really be used for comparison, as you well know, since they have thus far been restricted from doing "pooling" deals, they have not really been able to make a large stock purchase. All deals till now have been cash. I agree the Yurie deal was questionable, and I also think the Livingston deal was questionable. Both of these product lines to overlap with ASND. But the Yurie ATM access concentrator is marketed primarily to enterprise customers, and is arguably the most successful device of this type on the market. ASND's SA line (which is essentially the same thing) is marketed to carriers and ISP's to front-end its ATM switches, and hasn't been very successful thus far. Likewise, the Livingston line was traditionally marketed to small to medium ISPs. However, the new PM4 is obviously targeted to large ISPs and carrier and competes directly with the MAX TNT line. But I haven't seen any announced wins for this product, and that may seal its fate. ASNDs RAS/RAC gear is targeted more to medium to large ISPs, with many, many big wins. So it is possible to make a case for LU's past purchases, coupled with an ASND purchase. But I do tend to agree with you that these prior purchases may have just been wasted money. The last 18 months was a time for LU to dabble in data networking. Now they have to stand up and be counted. Will they choose to go half way, or make a purchase that gives them instant credibility with the large ISPs and carrier's that will be ponying up billions in the next few years? I think the answer is obvious. Gary