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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Charles Tutt who wrote (14212)	2/6/1999 7:27:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

RedHerring. Sun Microsystems. The hot com in dot.com herring.com Red Herring Online February 5, 1999 What a nice young man that Scott McNealy is. The huggable Sun Microsystems (SUNW) CEO not only has the boyish face and charm any mother would love, but also the business sense and Wall Street savvy to drive investors wild. From servers to software, Java to Jini, Sun Microsystems has positioned itself perfectly to take advantage of the Internet environment. With the market quickly migrating away from the desktop computer and toward, dare we say it, the network computer (or at least ubiquitous Internet devices), Sun stands to generate revenues from all sides of its business. In fact, Mike Lehman, Sun's chief financial officer, recently stated that the company's sales outlook "has never been better," and that Sun's revenues will grow even faster in the second half of the current fiscal year than in the first. For fiscal 1999, the company has already expanded revenue 16 percent in the first two quarters while growing earnings per share 19 percent over the same period. With 22 out of 24 analysts rating it a Buy or better and the stock having more than doubled in less than three months, Sun is on a roll. This is probably why the company just split its shares and simultaneously announced it beat Wall Street's estimates for its most recent quarter. To boot, Sun unveiled Jini, its networking technology aimed at ultimately connecting all devices to all others -- as in connecting microwaves to dishwashers and espresso machines to handheld computers. As a further sign of strength, Sun rolled out Jini with the support of 37 partners, ranging from Cisco to America Online, Motorola to Nokia. With a backlog of orders standing at $770 million as of the second quarter, gross profit margins of 51.6 percent of revenues, and sales growth cutting across all international markets, Sun's business model shows few immediate down sides. If 1999 finally turns out to be the year of set-top boxes and handheld devices connected to each other and the Web, it could also be the year for Sun to bust a move, Cisco-style. ALSO CONSIDER: SPYGLASS Spyglass (SPYG) is another company that aims to profit from the non-PC device market. The maker of the Web's original browser, Mosaic, was a one-time high-flying technology stock that crashed and burned. Can it make a comeback? Some would take one look at Iomega and Netscape and say that comebacks never have a chance in today's hypercompetitive technology market. But Spyglass has reinvented itself by developing a specialized browser to embed in non-PC devices. With deals ranging from Motorola to Xerox, Toshiba to General Instruments, the company is ready to take off as soon as the device market does. Although it's just been slapped with a class-action lawsuit for possible illegal trading by insiders, we're willing to give it the benefit of the doubt; its market position is that compelling. previous page return to intro next page Sun's Jini has some good friends and powerful foes. Spyglass CEO Doug Colbeth explains the company's reinvention. Spyglass stock ended 1998 on a high note. Printer-friendly version. Email this article to a friend. Discuss your top stock picks with other redherring.com readers. FEATURED LINKS MRSTOCK.COM: Online broker that specializes in options (and of course stocks). CAREER CENTRAL: A service for recruiting software and business professionals. RED HERRING CLICKS: The internet ad network. Promote your web site for free. GILDER REPORT: A view of technologies and companies pivotal to the Internet. OUR PARTNERS COPYRIGHT © 1998 RED HERRING COMMUNICATIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.