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

To: steve poon who wrote (56357)	10/22/1998 12:28:00 AM
From: Duke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Cohen: No recession here Wall Street's famed bull remains upbeat; sees S&P 500 at 1200-1250 in a year October 21, 1998: 9:22 p.m. ET Cohen invited to join GS elite - Oct. 20, 1998 Cohen raises Dow forecast - March 17, 1998 CNNfn Markets Goldman Sachs NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Unabashed and unbent in the face of dire market talk, famed Wall Street stock bull Abby Joseph Cohen said Wednesday she remained confident investors could expect "fairly notable gains" in the Dow Jones over the next 12 months as undervalued equities claw their way back to respectable levels. "I would still buy at this point because I am making one principal assumption: There is no recession on the horizon for the United States," Cohen told CNN's "Moneyline News Hour with Lou Dobbs." "The economy will be growing more slowly, but it will be growing, new jobs will be created and we think profits will increase as well," she said.Though already lionized by a major national magazine as the "prophet of Wall Street," Cohen's remarks Wednesday carried an added whiff of authority following her elevation a day earlier by Goldman Sachs to full partner. Her ascension came as 56 other managing directors also were promoted to full partnerships. Cohen has attracted kudos and critics on Wall Street for sticking with her bullish forecasts even as markets buckled across the globe. Before Wednesday she had set year-end targets of 9300 for the Dow Jones industrial average, 1850 for the tech-heavy Nasdaq, and 1150 for the Standard & Poor's listing of 500 widely traded stocks. On Moneyline, Cohen asserted that due to "something of a rally over the past month," the stock market may not be as undervalued now as it was at the end of September, when Goldman Sachs suggested equities were as much as 15 percent below their fair value. She predicted the Dow would be notably "higher" a year from now, without venturing any numbers, and that the S&P 500 would hover in the 1200 to 1250 range within the next 12 months. Cohen said especially good bargains could be found in technology and financial service stocks, many of which were pummeled in the recent downturn. "Over the past several months," she said, "earnings of technology companies have already been very hard hit and, if anything, we think some of these companies are now likely to see a reacceleration in the coming months. We see that in semiconductors, we also see that in some of the larger companies in the PC and computer area." Regional banks, whose exposure to battered international markets is minimal to nil, also are attractive, Cohen said. She warned, however, that sectors that rely on the global economy, such as commodities, may have a more difficult time weathering the current doldrums. Energy stocks, she noted, may be a possible exception. "If crude prices are near their trough, earnings should start to flatten out and move up," Cohen said. Cohen also voiced confidence in the ability of the Federal Reserve to provide any extra fillip the economy may need to ride out the present volatility. "I think the Federal Reserve will do what it feels it needs to do," she said. "The interest rate cuts so far have been an important signal to the financial markets letting us know that the Fed is being very watchful. And if there are signs that the economy perhaps is weaker than we are expecting, we do think the Fed has plenty of flexibility to step in again." Abby Joseph Cohen Goldman Sachs home

To: steve poon who wrote (56357)	10/22/1998 12:35:00 AM
From: Duke	Respond to of 61433

Acuity Webcenter Selected by Ascend Communications as Engine for New Interactive Web Services Initiative PRNewswire 21-OCT-98 AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/-- Acuity, the leading provider of Web-based customer interaction solutions, today announced that wide-area networking solutions leader Ascend Communications (Nasdaq: ASND) has selected Acuity WebCenter(TM) Enterprise to serve as the foundation for Ascend On-Line Services (AOS), a revolutionary Web-centric service and support delivery model. WebCenter Enterprise enables direct interaction between customers and Ascend staff over IP-based networks, in conjunction with advanced self-service options. The companies have signed an extensive licensing and services contract, further establishing Acuity's leadership position in the enterprise market for Web-based customer interaction software. As the core of Ascend's AOS initiative, Acuity's WebCenter Enterprise solution is tightly integrated with third-party systems from Documentum, Microsoft, Siebel Systems and others. This allows Ascend to leverage their existing investments in technology, staff and content, while transitioning to a completely new Web-centric service model. Acuity was the vendor best able to meet Ascend's demands for a comprehensive, scalable product that could be deployed within a 60-day time-to-market schedule. WebCenter Enterprise provides a rich array of capabilities for assisted self-help over the Web, including threaded discussions, knowledge base access, intelligent search-and-retrieval and automated e-mail response; advanced queuing and routing mechanisms for Web-based service requests through the Acuity WebACD(TM); and real-time interaction including text-based conferencing with agent/customer browser synchronization. Additionally, Acuity's experienced professional services organization and established strategic partnerships allowed Acuity to meet Ascend's current requirements, as well as prepare for expected growth. "Acuity has both the vision and the advanced functionality, scalability and technical expertise to power a solution as comprehensive and innovative as AOS," said Dave Colicchio, vice president of support, Global Integration Services Division, Ascend Communications. "AOS changes the face of the services industry and WebCenter Enterprise is a cornerstone of the technology solution." WebCenter Delivers Customer Mandated Web-based Service and Support AOS is leveraging the relationship with Acuity to develop and deploy a unique Web-centric service model, allowing customers, partners, and vendors to securely access their contracted services, account details, and general information from a single online location. National focus groups with over 70 existing and potential Ascend customers returned consistent demands for comprehensive Web-based service solutions-- preferably assisted self-service -- reinforcing Ascend's commitment to re-engineer their delivery platform. AOS is designed to deliver innovative service, quickly and easily connecting the customer via the Web to live help, education, documentation, product updates, and automatic notifications. "Acuity and Ascend have the same objective-- to deliver the most innovative and valuable Web-based customer service solutions on the market today," said Dean Cruse, vice president of marketing for Acuity. "The AOS model is further proof that Acuity has the most appropriate software solution and expertise to implement large-scale, enterprise-class Web-based customer interaction solutions." Ascend's rapid growth, combined with extensive and complex product, service and customer data, dictated the need to change to a broader, more robust system that could react to changing customer preferences and market dynamics. AOS customers will now be able to access the industry's first full-scale, just-in-time service system based primarily on the Web that combines proactive, reactive and assisted self-service approaches to meet customer needs. Deployment Environment Acuity WebCenter is implemented on Microsoft Windows NT servers running Microsoft IIS and accessed across a TCP/IP network with standard Java-compliant Web browsers. As part of AOS, Acuity WebCenter is integrated with solutions from Documentum, Microsoft, and Siebel Systems. About Ascend Communications Ascend Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASND) develops, manufactures, sells and services wide area networking solutions for telecommunications carriers, Internet service providers and corporate customers worldwide. For more information about Ascend and its products, please visit the Ascend Web site at www.ascend.com, or send e-mail to info@ascend.com. For Investor Relations, please call the communications hotline at 800-648-3059 or 760-704-4423 (outside the US & Canada). Additional investor information can also be accessed on the Web at: ascend.com. Ascend is headquartered at One Ascend Plaza, 1701 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda, Calif. 94502; phone is 800/ASCEND4 and fax is 510-814-2300. About Acuity Corporation Founded as ichat in 1995, Acuity Corporation is the leading provider of Web-based customer interaction solutions. Acuity's multitier, client/server software is used by more than 2,000 organizations to conduct ecommerce and provide online customer service and interaction. Acuity has received over $20 million in private equity funding and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. They can be reached at 512-425-2200, toll free at 888-242-8669, or via the Web at acuity.com. WebCenter Enterprise and WebACD are trademarks of Acuity Corporation. The Acuity logo is a registered trademark of Acuity Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.