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

To: Glenn McDougall who wrote (7058)	10/20/1998 6:51:00 PM
From: MD Bryant	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

Note the comments in the FINAL paragraph... -- and on another note, it makes you appreciate and respect NN's Global presence. Ascend falls on growth, spending concerns NEW YORK, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Shares of networking equipment maker Ascend Communications Corp. fell sharply on Tuesday, as investors voiced concerns about a leap in spending in the just completed third quarter and its future growth prospects. The stock fell to 44-7/8, off three, and traded as low as 41-1/8 on Tuesday. The slump came despite Ascend's report late Monday that third quarter earnings climbed to $0.32 a share, up from $0.20 a year and on par with Wall Street expectatons. Warburg Dillon Read analyst Nikos Theodosopoulos lowered his rating on Ascend stock to hold from buy, and cut his estimate of 1998 earnings per share to $1.17 from $1.18. He cut his fiscal 1999 earning per share projection to $1.60 from $1.65. ''Ascends growth prospects going forward are dependent on ramping revenues across all product lines,'' Theodosopoulos said in a research note. ''While we agree that the network of the future will be close to the one that Ascend (has described), we are not sure about the speed with which (it) will develop.'' Analysts also focused on a leap in administrative spending, to $33 million from $8 million, including a writedown of $8.6 million for loans to competitive local exchange carriers. Michael Cristinziano, an analyst at Gerard Klauer Mattison, noted that fourth quarter loans to these smaller customers would be of a similar amount. Ascend does not recognize revenue associated with customers to which it provides financing, until the loans are paid. Theodosopoulos, however, said the accounting practice may have a defensive upside. ''These policies, while confusing, seem conservative and will minimize any future impact to earnings from potential bad debt from emerging carriers,'' he said. Cristinziano, who reduced his projection for fiscal 1999 to $1.55 from $1.60, said in a research note that he doubts Ascend's recently acquired Stratus Computer unit will add to earnings in the fourth quarter, as the company has suggested. ''We continue to be cautious regarding the near-term contribution of Stratus,'' he said. ''While the long-term strategy that has brought Ascend and Stratus together makes sense, we find it hard to believe the acquisition will be accretive in first quarter 1999.'' Including $50 million in revenue from Stratus, Ascend forecast revenue in the fourth quarter to be $460 million and earnings-per-share of 31 cents. The per-share amount includes about 3 cents related to the Stratus purchase. Cristinzano maintained his hold rating and said Ascend must take care to get service providers to ''rapidly deploy ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switches.'' ''If Ascend's orders do not convert into shipments over the next six months, we believe other equipment vendors -- most notably, Cisco (Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO - news), Newbridge (Networks Corp.(Toronto:NNC.TO - news) ) and Lucent (Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LU - news)) -- will gain ATM market share at the expense of Ascend,'' he said.

To: Glenn McDougall who wrote (7058)	10/21/1998 9:25:00 AM
From: zbyslaw owczarczyk	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18016

Glenn,I am not proponent of sales of NN, but if you look at potantial buyers what company would you buy?: NN with 6000 people including 1700 excelent engineers, the best technology in packet in general (only Dell'Oro put ASND on No1 position on ATM in general,others Vertical System, IDC etc. named NN No1 !!!), global presence and technology like wireless access or WDM over multiservices! single platform which can manage up to 50k nodes per domain( others 300-500 only), or ASND with 1800 peple only.Anyone who do not agree should listen to ANSD CEO answering the last Q on CC!!! about technology which NN has but ASND not.Both company have similar amout of shares so why pay 70-80$ US for ASND if you can get NN with much more assets. If we look at NN contracts announcment vs ASND over last 12 or 6 monts NN looks much better.I do not care if this is US or european contract.Once NN will bring cost under control net prifit( %) will be similar to ASND.Internalional ATM is growing faster than US anyway.Today ASND refreshed old contrant with Bell Atlantic, which accoring to Bloomberg is worth 50-100mil.NN's SBC is over 300 mil and with oncoming merger most likely more.I encourage everybody to look at ASND and NN announced only contracts over last 12 months!!!. It is thrue that ASND is able to exercise many contracts faster, because many their customers are smaller service provider, but bigger telcos guarantee larger and more steady orders going forword. Regards Zbyslaw