Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: LindyBill who wrote (22567)	2/13/1999 4:09:00 PM
From: jach	Respond to of 77397

This potentially can be a significant negative impact for CSCO in the GBit router mkt. Competitions get the upper hand. That's why Fortune magazine had pointed out that with very heavy competition, margins are going to suffer. At these astronomical margin and PE of 120+ for CSCO, very likely there is no where to go but down for the stock price. imo. data.com

To: LindyBill who wrote (22567)	2/13/1999 4:19:00 PM
From: jach	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77397

Competition is getting stiff, will give CSCO tremendous margin pressure. -------------------------------- IBM gets serious about Ethernet Firm injecting ATMtechnology into Ethernet gear. By MARC SONGINI Network World, 02/08/99 RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. - IBM is ready to unleash a line of high-speed Ethernet switches that will boast quality-of-service (QoS) capabilities typically found only in ATM gear. Big Blue is also adding directory-based policy management technology to its router and switch lines, making it easier for companies to prioritize access to net re-sources. The moves are designed to make IBM a more significant player in the Ethernet market. Until now, IBM has focused largely on Token-Ring and ATM switching technologies. "We expect to grow our Ethernet business at three times the industry rate this year," said Rob Zimmer, director of strategy for IBM's Networking Hardware Division at the recent ComNet/DC '99 conference in Washington, D.C. "We feel that only Lucent has anywhere near the capability to offer end-to-end products and policy control that we will have." IBM executives said the company over the next 10 months will unleash a family of Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet campus and backbone switches built with the firm's Prizma ATM chip and other IBM Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) technology. The moves will let users build big high-speed Ethernet backbones with ATM QoS capabilities. Prizma, developed in IBM's Zurich Research Lab, is a 28G bit/sec ATM chip at the heart of the company's ATM switches. IBM would not say how many boxes will make up the new family. In addition, IBM will add policy-based management features to the software running on all of its major switch products - including the 2212 router, 827X switch/router families and 8265 ATM switch. To help enable policy-based management, IBM will add Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) support across its line of net gear. This will let IBM switches access user profiles and implement QoS policies from any LDAP directory in an enterprise network. With these initiatives, IBM joins Cisco, 3Com and other communications bigwigs that offer policy management for their routers and switches. To differentiate its products from those of competitors, IBM plans to use the high-throughput capacity of its Prizma chip in combination with QoS features, such as guaranteed bandwidth, best-effort delivery and priority queuing. IBM certainly has a lot to prove in the Ethernet arena, but some analysts were cautiously optimistic about the company's chances. The policy management initiative will let IBM sell to its installed base of Token-Ring users migrating to Ethernet, and also could be attractive to non-IBM customers, says Sam Alunni, president of Sterling Research, a consultancy in Sterling, Mass. IBM believes it can make highly competitive Ethernet products, but in the past, the company didn't feel the need to offer an alternative to its Token-Ring line. ----------------------------- Now look at these numbers: quote.yahoo.com quote.yahoo.com CSCO mkt cap about the same as IBM. BUT, IBM is way way bigger than CSCO and IBM PE is only about 30 compared to 120 for CSCO. IBM has plenty of room to adjust their price points to drive prices down and what'll happen when the margins drop for csco. This is the typical play when mkt gets to a sizable point and with certain maturity. Imagine, CSCO has to play at the PE of 27 similar to IBM because margins drop. That will be like CSCO share price of about 35$. Compare IBM to CSCO, IBM at this point based on valuation and earnings PE ratio is a much better risk. imo.

To: LindyBill who wrote (22567)	2/13/1999 4:24:00 PM
From: Lynn	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 77397

Do you have any insight into why a person would spend so much time on the thread of a stock he/she obviously holds in such low esteem? Given the frequency of this unnamed person's postings, and the time he/she puts into making replies [that take time to write], it just makes no sense to me. Why not spend time on threads for stocks one either holds shares of already or is considering for purchase? Isn't this a better use of one's time? Lynn