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

To: pat mudge who wrote (7575)	11/20/1998 6:49:00 AM
From: Glenn McDougall	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

Newbridge share price continues to soar Karyn Standen The Ottawa Citizen Newbridge Networks Corp.'s share price continued to soar yesterday, one day after the Kanata networking-equipment company was rumoured to have signed a $750-million U.S. contract to provide asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) equipment to Global One, a partnership of Sprint Corp, Deutsche Telekom AG and France Telecom. Newbridge's stock was up $3.75 to close at $40.35 yesterday as nearly three million shares traded hands on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Indeed, the company's share value has increased nearly 19 per cent in the last week. In New York, Newbridge's shares were up $2 3Ú4 to close at $26 1Ú4 yesterday, again in heavy trading. Terms of Newbridge's possible deal with Global One, including how much of the contract would go to Newbridge, were not available. Newbridge denies signing the contract. Industry analysts, however, say the rise in Newbridge's stock is due in large part to an increase in telecommunications companies' share values in general. The rise in technology issues has seen giants such as Cisco Systems Inc., 3COM Corp., Ascend Communications Inc., and Lucent Technologies Inc. recently at or near their 52-week highs. While Nortel's shares on the TSE remain significantly off their 52-week high of $100.25, posted May 21, the company has nevertheless seen its stock climb nearly eight per cent in the last week. Howard Sutton, portfolio manager at Toronto's Tera Capital Global Technology Fund, says a "huge amount" of capital has poured into the technology sector in the past 12 weeks as investors, primarily chased away by the market melt-down during the summer, regain confidence in the markets. "Money in the U.S. is looking for stocks that have good prospects. We've wiped out that bubble," Mr. Sutton said in reference to the summer market slump. As an example of the increased size of financial reserves, Mr. Sutton said, $180 billion is currently invested in U.S. money-market mutual funds, compared with $40 billion sitting in those funds at the end of last year. Paul Silverstein, an analyst with U.S.-based BancBoston Robertson Stephens, agrees "there's a lot of money out there." "The communications industry is in the second to third year of a 15- to 20-year build-out of a WAN (wide-area network)-packet infrastructure by the world service providers," he said. "There's going to be a lot of money spent on building these networks. That's going to be to the benefit of companies such as Ascend, Newbridge, Northern Telecom, Lucent and Cisco." Nevertheless, Mr. Silverstein says actions recently taken by Newbridge, including recruiting Alan Lutz as president in the summer and organizing the company into three groups based on its WAN-packet, time division multiplexing (TDM) and local area network (LAN)-packet product lines respectively, have gone far to boost Newbridge's standing in the investment community. Newbridge's shares hit a 52-week low of $23.85 on the TSE on Oct. 9, and remain significantly short of their 52-week high of $68.10, posted a year ago today. "The old Newbridge, before Alan Lutz, was overpromised and undervalued," Mr. Silverstein said. "The Newbridge today is a very different company than it was six months ago. It continues to move in the right direction, so (investor) perception is starting to change about the company." Indeed, Mr. Sutton expects Newbridge' share price in New York to continue to rise to the "mid-30's". Newbridge is expected to release its second quarter earnings for fiscal 1999 on Tuesday.

To: pat mudge who wrote (7575)	11/20/1998 7:08:00 AM
From: Glenn McDougall	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

Technology stocks soar By SUSAN TAYLOR, Ottawa Sun LOCAL hi-tech stocks rode a tide of soaring values yesterday, buoyed by a bull market. Analysts tied the strong showing to a market correction, renewed confidence and huge investments in hi-tech firms on American markets. Newbridge Networks had one of the best performances, gaining $3.75 on the Toronto Stock Exchange to close at $40.35. On the U.S. Nasdaq, shares rose $2.75 to end the day at $26.25. That boost is likely tied to rumours of a $750-million deal Newbridge has signed with the Global One Communications Alliance. But one analyst who closely follows the firm, and asked not to be named, said that estimate is inflated. "There's probably some substance to it, but nowhere near what has been bandied about in the press," he said. "It's totally, totally out to lunch." Only if all three members of the consortium -- Sprint Corp., Deutsche Telekom AG, and France Telecom -- bought the maximum quantity of equipment they could from Newbridge over several years would it hit $750 million, the analyst said. And that's unlikely. Sprint uses only Cisco equipment in its domestic networks and is now testing new Nortel ATM equipment. Sales to Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom would add up to substantially less than the rumoured deal -- perhaps $200 million over two years, the analyst suggested. Newbridge is also rumoured to be advising analysts with high-end projections for the the second half of 1998 to drop them by 5cents. "That doesn't apply if you have a $750-million deal," the analyst said. Newbridge won't comment on the speculation, but did point out president Alan Lutz had a warm welcome from analysts at a SBC Warburg Dillon Read Inc. conference in New York Tuesday. "The stock started to turn around almost simultaneously," said spokesman John Lawlor. "The message getting back from financial analysts is there is an increasing interest ... in Newbridge stock." Newbridge also announced yesterday a 33% stake in a new affiliate, U.K.-based Ubiquity Software Corp. That takes the networks firm into the call centre equipment market, worth $3-5 billion annually. "We're competing into that market with new technology," said Chris Albinson, assistant vice-president of affiliate products. Ubiquity sells software that uses the Internet for call centre services. That helps link people from several locations for one centre service, links computers using different platforms and integrates voice and data to the desktop. But Newbridge wasn't the only area hi-tech firm watching its stock soar. "We've got a correction coming on the upside," said Fred Ketchen, managing director of equity trading at Scotia McLeod Inc. "We're seeing a little bit more of a feeling of comfort." The markets may now realize currency crises haven't hit as hard as anticipated and investors who got spooked during recent slumps are back buying, Ketchen suggested. Nortel Networks was up $2.85 on the TSE to close at $73.50 and up $1.75 on the Nasdaq to end the day at $47.44. Cognos rose $2.55 on the TSE and gained $1.69 on the Nasdaq. JDS Fitel was up $1.25 and CrossKeys rose 90cents on the TSE. Few firms saw a decline. WorldHeart dropped 13cents on the Nasdaq, though it was up 25cents on the TSE. Mitel fell 20cents to close at $11.60 on the TSE. Howard Sutton, manager of the Tera Capital Technology Fund, said the majority of Canadian hi-tech stocks trading on U.S. exchanges got a shot of adrenaline. "What tech stock is not going up today?" he asked. "There's just a huge amount of money going into them in the U.S." Market sentiment in the States appears to have shifted in favour of hi-tech stocks after months of investor nervousness, he said.

To: pat mudge who wrote (7575)	11/20/1998 8:08:00 AM
From: ricky	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18016

Conference Call info: We are pleased to invite you to a conference call hosted by John Lawlor, Vice President, Corporate Communications of Newbridge Networks to discuss the Company's results for second quarter, fiscal year 1999. The conference call is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, November 24th at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time). Should you wish to listen to this teleconference within North America please call 800-542-1365. International callers please dial 303-267-1001. Please dial in ten minutes prior to the scheduled start of the call. An instant replay of the call will be available for 48 hours. To access the instant replay within North America please dial 800-625-5288 passcode 436183. International callers please dial 303-804-1855 passcode 436183. Ricky