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Technology Stocks : Nortel Networks (NT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (2297)	3/26/1999 7:00:00 AM
From: Neil H	Respond to of 14638

Thursday March 25, 8:16 pm Eastern Time INTERVIEW-Nortel chief says the heavy work is done By Lydia Zajc TORONTO, March 25 (Reuters) - Last year, John Roth built himself a new house and directed the reconstruction of Northern Telecom Ltd., the Canadian telecoms and data titan. This year, he says, he'll put the finishing touches on both. Nortel (Toronto:NTL.TO - news) (NYSE:NT - news), one of the biggest companies in its field, has gone through a huge transformation since December 1997. That's when Chief Executive Roth told employees the firm would focus its energies on merging voice and data signals over the same pipelines, the Internet, for instance, instead of making equipment to carry sound over phone lines. Since then, Nortel has purchased California-based data communications firm Bay Networks for $9.1 billion, proposed formally changing its name to Nortel Networks Corp., and undertaken two programs of cutbacks. Now it's time to add the finishing touches, Roth told Reuters in a recent interview at Nortel's headquarters in Brampton, Ontario, on the outskirts of Toronto. ''Last year the task was to get the portfolio in place, get the people seeing the new vision, getting the redirection of effort,'' Roth said. ''And this is the year of execution: we've got to make it happen.'' ''All big elements are there,'' he added. ''Now it's sort of finishing touches.'' At the same time, Roth and his wife Margaret have been building a house northwest of Toronto. ''Last year, it was putting the foundation in place, and I've got the drywall up now, and putting the trim on,'' Roth said. Roth is seeking some more small acquisitions for Nortel. ''I've got some holes to fill in right now.'' Analysts said Nortel seems to be moving in the right direction. ''He's got this major acquisition in place. This is going to be the year to see how well the machine runs,'' said Rob Wilkes at Brown Brothers Harriman. Roth brushed aside concerns that Nortel was having problems integrating Bay, a data specialist, into its operations. But he said the year 2000 computer bug could hurt the data industry as some companies concentrate on the state of their current technology instead of forging ahead with new purchases. ''The industry's a little slower getting off the mark this year than it was last year. But this is not unique to us, we've seen other companies with similar kinds of reports,'' he said. Roth said the trend was not alarming. But with the Y2K glitch on the horizon many companies spent last fall reconfiguring hardware to allow them to hunker down this year and get their software working. A good number of corporations plan to ''freeze'' their networks in October or as early as August, Roth said. But some firms have turned ahead their clocks to test their systems and found they were in better shape than expected. ''Y2K could well be the biggest nonevent of this millennium,'' Roth noted. Roth would not discuss Nortel's financial situation, but company officials told analysts recently that it is comfortable with street projections for revenues for its first quarter and 1999. The street forecast revenues of up to $4.5 billion in the first quarter and up to $22 billion for the year. First-quarter earnings should come in in line with expectations of $0.33 a share, analysts added. Nortel's wireless phone market is expected to grow around 16-18 percent in 1999. But Roth added that ''price competition is getting pretty fierce and so we got to see how that really works out for the year.'' Now that Roth feels his staff is focused on building Web-related networks, he's turning his attention to moving data and voice over wireless networks. ''People say the demand is there: if we can figure out how to ... get the connection established, the traffic will come.''

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (2297)	3/26/1999 8:34:00 AM
From: bill c.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14638

Kenneth, Why is Nortel announcing POSSIBLE contract wins? First AT&T now some European Telco. My take; Nortel isn't getting the customer respect in the Data area that Lucent and Cisco are receiving, so they start announcing possible contract wins. Interesting Marketing, but will it work? Here is the Nortel headline: AT&T considers Nortel for switching tech news.com and the Lucent headline: AT&T tests Lucent switch enhancement news.com Nortel chief sees gradual market shift news.com Lucent may catch $1 billion AT&T contract Lucent Technologies, the world's largest maker of phone-equipment, is likely to win a contract from AT&T to supply about $1 billion of cellular network equipment, an analyst said. Lucent, AT&T's former equipment arm, is seen beating out rivals Northern Telecom and Ericsson for the order, Merrill Lynch analyst Joseph Bellace said in a report.... news.com