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Technology Stocks : 3Com Corporation (COMS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Moonray who wrote (27197)	1/22/1999 3:10:00 PM
From: cgraham	Respond to of 45548

To: Moonray who wrote (27197)	1/22/1999 3:33:00 PM
From: Edwarda	Respond to of 45548

Peter is a good guy. I have a great deal of respect for his thinking.

To: Moonray who wrote (27197)	1/22/1999 7:25:00 PM
From: Mang Cheng	Respond to of 45548

"About 500,000 cable modems were shipped worldwide in 1998, Dataquest" January 20, 1999 WARREN'S CABLE REGULATION MONITOR via NewsEdge Corporation : About 500,000 cable modems were shipped worldwide in 1998, Dataquest said, up from 210,000 previous year. Top 5 manufacturers were Motorola, Nortel, Com21, 3Com, General Instrument. [Copyright 1999, Warren Publishing] Mang (this one supports my figure)

To: Moonray who wrote (27197)	1/23/1999 11:51:00 PM
From: Mang Cheng	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 45548

Bullish article from Barron this week on Follow Up section : "Flying High - 3Com is soaring again" "Network supplier 3Com is finally regaining altitude, after taking on the staggering U.S. Robotics modem business in 1997. 3Com's momentum stalled with that $7 billion merger, as it worked down Robotics' surprisingly large inventories. At their nadir, shares in Santa Clara, California-based 3Com sank to 23 bucks, from a pre-merger peak of $80. That's when Barron's looked at the upside (see "The Future Is 3Com," December 1, 1997). Happily, 3Com's sales climbed a gratifying 29% to $1.5 billion in the quarter ended November 1998, with earnings of $133 million, or 36 cents a share. With his stock at $46 last week, 3Com CEO Eric Benhamou met with analysts in New York to describe his company's "big, hairy, audacious goals" for the future. By 2003, 3Com and its telecom partner Siemens could gain $1 billion in new sales from gear that carries voice traffic over computer networks. Even sooner, the market for networked disc drives known as Storage Area Networks (SANs) could bring another billion dollars to all vendors, and 3Com is the first big networking vendor with ready products. 3Com has survived a price assault by Intel in networking cards, in part by cutting that business to less than 10% of overall sales. Deals with PC makers like Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM have also secured 3Com's market share. The US Robotics modem business is preparing for higher speeds. TCI gave Robotics a master contract for cable Internet gear, and Dell will offer Robotics modems for a fast phone line technology called DSL. While placing its products inside PCs like Dell's, 3Com plans to keep its brand name in the consumer's face to avoid the anonymity that put disc-drive makers at the PC vendors' mercy. Benhamou aims to raise 3Com's operating profit margins from the low teens to the high teens by trimming costs. Over $100 million in savings could come from shrinking inventories. A year ago, the cycle time for 3Com to buy raw materials and get paid for its finished goods was 111 days. By the end of the May 1999 fiscal year, Benhamou wants that cycle down to 65 days. The chief executive seemed proudest of how 3Com's business now stretches from the heart of computer networks to the palms of people's hands (where 3Com's Palm Computing devices are earning a profit), while dodging powerful rivals. Despite Intel's designs on the networking market, Microsoft has chosen 3Com as its network partner and put 3Com technology into Windows 2000. And 3Com won't chase Cisco Systems into the core public phone markets, where Cisco is battling Lucent Technologies and Northern Telecom. Although the quarter that ends in February is always a seasonal challenge, NationsBanc Montgomery analyst Al Tobia thinks 3Com shares could ultimately reach $60. He forecasts earnings of $1.40 a share for the May '99 fiscal year and $2.25 for the year ending May 2000. --Bill Alpert