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

To: gbh who wrote (55156)	10/2/1998 9:19:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

ASND: ASCEND COMM INC is expected to report earnings for its fiscal quarter ending 09/98 on 10/09/98. The Zacks consensus estimate of earnings per share for ASND's 09/98 quarter is $0.31.

To: gbh who wrote (55156)	10/3/1998 9:15:00 AM
From: gfr fan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

<<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.>> Agree with both of these points, except for Yurie's success. They had early success here, but are lacking important software features to keep up. ASND and one other networker (you can guess who) have better products and Yurie has slipped off the #1 market share in D'ell Oro's most recent poll. SA line will be better. I think LU spent way too much on Yurie - probably $800M cash too much - this isn't chump change for any company. I agree that Livingston was also very questionable (I would throw in Lannet as well, but this didn't cost too much). Point is that what would appear to make sense doesn't always happen with acquisitions. I think it would be easier to for LU to take on one to two larger companies rather than 15 smaller ones and ASND definitely makes sense on paper. But reality may prove different. There seems to be a general consensus that LU is going to walk right in to the data world and dominate, but it's a whole new ball game on the data side. I guarantee you CSCO does not fear the LU sales force, and LU will have an issue in keeping the best and brightest Silicon Valley types - I used to work at LU/ATT, and the culture is completely different than a Silicon Valley firm. This issue is going to be the downfall to NT/Bay, as I have to think any Bay sales guy or engineer with marketable skills is out the door within six months. ASND is fine either way, it will just take us longer to see the stock hit the 50's and 60's again on their own as compared to a buyout, but it should get there either way.