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

To: bucky89 who wrote (57526)	11/25/1998 5:04:00 PM
From: H.A.M.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Newbridge shares surge on China contract news By Lydia Zajc TORONTO, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Shares in networking firm Newbridge Networks Corp. (NNC.TO) surged on Wednesday after it won a deal to provide China's state postal bureau with a platform for its core national multimedia network. China Post will use the Siemens AG (SIEG.F)/Newbridge (NN.N) platform to create a backbone broadband network that can support voice, data and Internet services in 31 provinces across China, which has a growing population of more than one billion, Newbridge said. The system will use the Kanata, Ontario-based firm's asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching technology. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. But U.S. rival Ascend Communications Inc. (ASND.O) also said earlier this week it had won a similar bid from China Post, creating confusion because the wording of press releases from both companies were remarkably similar. An Ascend spokeswoman said that it and Murray Hill, New Jersey-based Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU.N), along with Newbridge, each have won a portion of the contract to provide ATM and frame relay products. Newbridge claimed an exclusive vendor relationship. The company's executive vice president in the Asia Pacific region, Constantin Loudiadis, said in a release: ''Newbridge Networks is pleased to be the exclusive vendor for China Post's national backbone.'' Lucent did not release any information about the deal. Investors and analysts cheered the news from Newbridge, sharply boosting its shares on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges. In Toronto the stock soared C$6.55 or nearly 17 percent to close at C$45.30 after surging when a morning trading halt for dissemination of the China deal was lifted. In New York shares jumped $4.38 higher to $29.50. Shares in Nasdaq-listed Alameda, California-based Ascend rose $1.38 to $58.50. Analyst Gurinder Parhar, from HSBC James Capel, applauded Newbridge's news, adding that he was increasing his target price for the company's stock to C$55 based on recent positive developments. Newbridge said a day earlier that its second-quarter earnings matched analysts' expectations and revenues hit record quarterly levels. Deals such as China Post give investors a sense of comfort that ATM growth will continue and allay fears that sales might fall off. ''It's just getting back the credibility that the company has lost,'' Parhar said. ''What's getting people excited about it is that they're saying they're the core ATM supplier, and if that's the case, then that's a validation of their product strategy,'' Parhar said. Newbridge said this was the second Chinese national network contract it has been awarded. The first was a digital data network. Since breaking off from China Telecom, China Post has been upgrading its network to meet demand for rapid growth and new services, the company said. ($1 - $1.54 Canadian) 16:42 11-25-98