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Technology Stocks : Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr.Fun who wrote (20778)	1/14/1999 4:08:00 PM
From: The Phoenix	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77397

IP in carrier nets is simple in comparison to running TRUE IP networks. If you think or characterize ASND as an IP company with a drill down understanding of IP I think you're only fooling yourself. GRF is a failure and IP Navigator is a technical joke. OG

To: Mr.Fun who wrote (20778)	1/15/1999 9:24:00 AM
From: Daniel W. Koehler	Respond to of 77397

The big question in my mind in the LU/Asnd merger is corporate culture and management. With management schooled in voice-based technology and products, is the inertia too great at LU to transition to the IP driven world of ASND. Could the bureaucrats at LU smother the technocrats at ASND? Who would benefit from any miscues ala ASND/CASCADE? CSCO of course! Long 20 Apr 100 calls. Daniel

To: Mr.Fun who wrote (20778)	1/19/1999 2:23:00 PM
From: The Phoenix	Respond to of 77397

Mr Fun, I never really responded to you on this... I thought if I did you would simply respond back with why I am wrong. It actually is quite tiring and I really don't want to spend the time. However, First I don't think anyone can disagree. LU/ASND IS indeed a formidable competitor. There is no doubt about that and I don't believe I've ever said they weren't. To suggest I did is...well...as Clinton would say...just plain wrong. What I said was that if LU wanted IP expertise ASND was not the place to go to get it. To think that ASND is an expert wrt IP diminishes the high regard that many have for you. Be honest, ASND is all about layer 2, ATM and frame..they are an also-ran when it comes to IP. You point out IP Navigator. I said it's a joke.. It is. OK, so you say it's state of the art when it comes to MPLS. I guess that makes the Cisco/Stratacom state of the are when it comes to TAG. You point to all the deals ASND has won in the carriers. Cisco has been matching ASND..in fact beating them in many cases in the carrier space recently. You mentioned Frontier...go back and look at the IP archicture of Frontier.;) You mentioned ASND's telephony story...I agree that ASND has done more here than I would have imagined, but CSCO is still light-years ahead when it comes to delivering carrier grade IP Telephony solutions. CSCO just spends a lot less time talking about them. That doesn't mean that ASND/LU is not currently an excellent competitor...it's just that CSCO has a huge lead. The question is will ASND/LU catch up? From there you went into a RAS rant and modems and crap.... and then tried to put words into my mouth about ASND's GRF. So, to take a sentence from your book. I'm not sure where you're coming from. My point was clear. If LU wanted IP technology they could have spent less to get it. ASND for $20B to get IP is a bad deal. HOWEVER, LU did NOT buy ASND for IP technology, they bought them for their ATM and Frame technology and their position with the ISP's where LU is weak. This makes the deal a little more palatable. BUT, LU still has very little international exposure and I continue to believe that this acq. helps them little with their battle against CSCO in converged packet networks. I see LU/ASND doing well in the core (as LU and ASND have both done well in the past), but not having new success internationally or in the enterprise. Fundmentally this acq. does little to EXPAND LU's market. At $20B, I think that's dangerous. In sum, a good deal for ASND stockholders, and short-term a bad deal for LU stockholders (this quarter set aside). That is, LU and ASND will have a good quarter, followed by 2-3 quarters of sub-par performance..then, who knows..... OG