Matt Krantz Vertel sells a variety of software products to companies in the telecom industry. The troubles are reflected in Vertel's financials. Killing the company's revenue is the aging of its flagship product, called Telecommunications Management Network, or TMN, which connects different types of telecom gear. Making things even worse, the firm's services unit had a decline in revenue as the telecom industry continues to suffer. But at the end of 2000, the CEO concurred that it continues to be difficult to predict what the future demand for the products will be.
Investors have less reason to be optimistic.
Even leading firms in the telecom sector, like Cisco Systems, have said that demand in the first quarter was precipitously worse than even the prior quarter. This bodes poorly for the market Vertel serves. Matt can't answer e-mail messages personally, but we'll publish the answers to many questions in upcoming columns. Browse past tech stock questions and answers in the Ask Matt archive . Alaska Australia Brit.