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

To: Glenn McDougall who wrote (57540)	11/26/1998 10:13:00 PM
From: John Meares	Respond to of 61433

OK interesting analysis what does this mean for ASND stock price - downward pressure, or is the LU buyout still the over-riding issue?

To: Glenn McDougall who wrote (57540)	11/27/1998 2:38:00 AM
From: bucky89	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 61433

Glenn, I take exception to Pat's remarks that Ascend's press release was totally biased, while Newbridge's statements are totally honest and saying it as it is. Rather, I think Newbridge's press release contains more word smithing and deception. Newbridge Networks is pleased to be the exclusive vendor for the China Post's national backbone," said Constantin Loudiadis. . ." How can Newbridge claim to the exclusive vendor? Because they used the keyword "backbone". Yes, Newbridge won a contract to sell a few ATM switches to support the China Post's backbone. I would be surprised if more than a dozen core switches are necessary to support this network. Okay, great for Newbridge, but is selling a dozen 36170's worth a 17% pop in Newbridge's stock price? I doubt it. The complexity in an ATM network resides in the edge switches. It's the edge switches that have to worry about IP/MPLS, FR interworking, and the higher level ATM Adaptation Layers (AAL's). The edge switches make everything simple and easy for the core by cutting all data packets into nice-sized 56-byte cells. That way, the core switches don't get overwhelmed and overworked, and all they have to worry about is switching the cells down the right virtual path/connection. That Newbridge won the contract for the core doesn't mean squat. Just about anybody's ATM switches can fill in that role, as long as they have an adequately fast switching fabric with enough horsepower not to be overwhelmed by Ascend's BSTDX9000's. Rather, one has to wonder about Newbridge's ability to win the edge. That's the question that counts. Since Newbridge is way behind in IP, I am not surprised with the outcome. So which company did a better job of hyping a relatively small contract win? Well, since NN went up 17% vs. ASND up 4%, I'd say NN is the better hypster. That's to be expected when you think about the history of these companies. bucky89

To: Glenn McDougall who wrote (57540)	11/27/1998 4:12:00 AM
From: H.A.M.	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 61433

This is in response to some of the NN propaganda and misinformation on this thread regarding the China Post contract: In short, Newbridge grabbed the golden ring by winning the backbone and Ascend underestimated its audience by putting out press that made the company appear stronger than it was. Actually, it was NN that misinformed its shareholders and others by saying that the contract was "exclusive" for NN: <<"Newbridge Networks is pleased to be the exclusive vendor for China Post's national backbone,">> said one NN executive. Of course this is not true, because the press releases from two other companies, namely ASND and LU say otherwise. The ASND press release says that they will <<provide ATM equipment to build the China Post Multiservices Network. The next-generation ATM network will be the switching backbone for the nation's postal service>>, and they quoted the representative of the director of China Post saying "It is the largest IT infrastructure project throughout China Post. Ascend Communications proves to be a powerful equipment provider in the Telecom field and has contributed a lot to Chinese data communications with its widely accepted ATM equipment." Notice that this is a China Post official, who is saying that, not an ASND executive. Also in the LU press release (http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/981111/lucent_tec_1.html), we read that LU <<is one of the vendors selected by the State Postal Bureau of the People's Republic of China to supply Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) equipment to its China Postnet project, the postal bureau's wide area integrated services network.>> and <<Lucent will supply its PacketStar(tm) AC 120 multiservice access switch which will be installed at the ATM backbone of the State Postal Bureau's wide area network.>> Notice the phrase "ONE OF THE VENDORS." NN is the only one here that talked about being "exclusive," while there is none of that in the ASND or LU press releases. Also look at the ridiculous hype in the NN release, where they say that one billion people live in China (as if we need to be reminded!) and that NN will be serving "one quarter of the world's population"!! Besides, while ASND made their release quietly (as usual), consistent with their conservative tradition of dealing with these thing, how did NN come out with their release? They resorted to a dramatic way by halting the trade in New York and Toronto due to "pending news"! Neither ASND nor LU did that. Now tell me who is the one that misled people by talking about an "exclusive" contract and <<underestimated its audience by putting out press that made the company appear stronger than it was>>?! Regards, Hisham