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Technology Stocks : Broadcom (BRCM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stoctrash who wrote (1226)	4/8/1999 4:46:00 PM
From: Spaw	Respond to of 6531

Fred, You are correct in your statement. I for one am looking at the way the stock trades, as well as the company. I believe their competitors are behind the 8 ball. --spaw--

To: Stoctrash who wrote (1226)	4/8/1999 7:12:00 PM
From: Robert S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6531

BRCM certainly does have competition but it is the rare corporation that doesn't. Competition can serve as a dual-edged sword; it can take away market share from BRCM or it can push BRCM to look over its shoulder and try to stay ahead of the competition by developing improved products, keeping them "on their toes" so to speak. BRCM is targeting large and growing markets and there is certainly room for several players. Broadcom has many bases covered as it produces chips for cable and DSL modems, high-speed networking, satellite communications, and set-top boxes. Looking forward, when PCs and TVs converge, BRCM, with it's predominant position in the set-top arena, should also do well in this projected large market. Competition, Spaw, Competition. They have no holy grail, just first to market...and that don't justify a 5B market cap. First to market has its pros and cons but the advantages are not easily dismissed. Companies in such a situation can benefit from both customer- and operations-based sources of advantage; the former promotes greater name recognition (a positive for a publicly traded company) and it allows BRCM to shape customer's preferences and perhaps become the industry standard, the latter enables commandeering scarce resources, securing important industry patents, and gaining market experience. As for the market cap, have BRCM shares gotten ahead of themselves? Perhaps, but one could argue the same for many stocks in this market. Great companies are rarely under-valued and time will tell if BRCM warrants this lofty designation; my research strongly suggests it will.