StrataCom to go Public

[new...@desire.wright.edu]

Netland:

Anyone out there know about a San Jose, Calif., based company called
StrataCom Inc.? What do they do?

They are soon to offer 2.5 million shares of common stock for an IPO.

K. D.

[Dave Caulkins]

They make Frame Relay, ATM, and other communications products. I
believe they are well thought of in the comm business.

Dave C

[Rex Mammel]

Stratcom is the first and most successful manufacturer of
DS-3 and ds-1 switches. They have recently
moved into the Asynchronous Transfer Module(ATM) technology
and tha is expected to be a big growth area ove rthe next five years.

This stock would be equivelent to an investment in SynOptics
in 1987; the exception is that the Stratacom products are used
exclusively in large telecom networks whereas SynOptics ethernet
products were/are used by every size company.

2.5 mil shares IPO
I would expect a price of 8-10.

--
Mayuko: Yes! Yes! Noise war. We have noise war!
---------------=================>>>>>> * <<<<<<=============--------------------

[Dinesh Kulkarni]

I have a naive question to ask which is about new offerings in general
and Stratacom in particular. How does one acquire new stock (before it is
publicly traded on NYSE/NASDAQ ? Does one have to have a sizeable account
with a top broker with a well-established trading history ? Is it a privilege
extended to select clients by underwriting brokers ? In particular, if
the first-offering date for StrataCom is not already over, how can one get
that stock ?

Any info./pointers appreciated.

Thanks

Dinesh

[Jason Chen]

The original poster did not answer my e-mail, so I would like to ask the net:

Can someone post and e-mail me the name(s) of the underwriter(s)?

Thanks

C. Jason Chen
jc...@flash.bellcore.com

[Danny R Dalal]

About StrataComm, and IPO's in general, how does one get into the stock
at the offering price? And when will the initial offering be? How do I
keep tabs on this and find all the ATM companies too because I've been
recently interested in investing in that technology group.

Thanks,

___Dan

[Keith Hawkins]

Well I'm sure glad I read the investor b-board.

I few months ago, I read an article in
Information Week about StrataCom. It seemed
like a very interesting company and I checked
to see if it was public. I check the listings
and did not find it, so I assumed it was
either private or a subsidiary.

Does anyone have the approximate date when
active trading on this issue will occur??

Thanks,
Keith

[McAldon International Inc.]

|Dinesh

New issues are generally offered through a lead underwriter or two, plus
a syndicate of other brokers who have a good retailing operation. If you
have an account with one of the brokers involved, you MAY get some of a
hot stock in the IPO, depending upon your relationship with the broker. If
it's not a hot stock [most lately seem to be], you might get all you want;
otherwise your share, if you get any, will probably be limited. The
foregoing applies to large IPOs. You're not likely to get ANY of a small
desirable offering unless a syndicate broker owes you favors. DMcKenzie

| mca...@igc.org | Opinions dispensed herein not guaranteed |
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[Benjamin Fisk]

In article <1992Jun26....@desire.wright.edu>, new...@desire.wright.edu writes:
>
> Anyone out there know about a San Jose, Calif., based company called
> StrataCom Inc.? What do they do?

Smith & Barney is handling the IPO. You can get a prospectus from them.

--
Ben Fisk : fi...@netcom.COM

[Dave Caulkins]

I believe the Stratacom IPO is scheduled for July 31.

Dave C

[Dinesh Kulkarni]

Earlier this week, I posted a request to m.i regarding the IPO
of StrataCom. I got one informative reply and dozens of "me-too" requests.
Instead of individually replying to each me-too reqest, I thought it would
be better to gather some info. and post to m.i instead. I have obtained
a prospectus for the IPO from Smith & Barney (800 932 0037). Here are
a few interesting points from the prospectus. I would be glad to share
any additional info. that I can get, but please note that I am new to
IPO analysis and hence any non-factual (not quoted from the prospectus)
content of my posting *should* be scrutinized further. It would be nice
if someone with a better understanding (and better info. resources too)
of this StrataCom IPO or in general IPOs could guide us netters further.

From the prospectus:

Accumulated deficit of approx $21 million
Q-1, 1992 income per share $0.04
Strategic alliance w/ Motorola, DEC
500,000 shares offered by selling (existing) stockholders
14,679,195 shares will be outstanding after IPO (+ footnote stuff - hurrumph)
Possibility of competition from current resellers in addition to IBM, AT&T,
MCI, Sprint

My impression:

Seems to have done OK so far, but future competition may be very stiff
due to attractive margins => margins may erode significantly.
The company may be too small to compete w/ telecom/network/computer
giants like AT&T and IBM which can pour money into R&D and survive in spite
of price wars to keep market share. Strategic alliances equity participation
from resellers like DEC is good but I don't know whether they can offset
the above-mentioned problems. Also, equity dilution is likely to lead to
VERY LOW earning per share (based on prev. quarters) so we may have low
post-IPO price or very high P/E for a while (the latter does not make one
comfortable in a market that is supposed to be overpriced and ripe for a
10-15% fall acc. to many experts.)

Can anyone enlighten us further (esp. from an investor's perspective as
opposed to mere technological perspective such as promising product, high-
tech ATM/IPX stuff) ?

Thanks

Dinesh