15:59 3Com, Ascend Shares Up On Rumors Of Takeover By Ericsson
(Copyright (c) 1998, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Shares of 3Com Corp. (COMS) and Ascend
Communications Inc. (ASND) were up Thursday on ongoing rumors that
Swedish telecommunications equipment maker L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co.
(ERICY) could acquire one of the data networking companies.
Rumors of acquisitions in the computer networking companies by the big
phone equipment companies have been sweeping the sector for a number of
months and heated up this week after Northern Telecom Ltd. (NT) finally
announced its long-anticipated purchase of Bay Networks Inc. (BAY).
That deal itself has attracted a lot of criticism on Wall Street and
some have speculated that it could unravel or that another suitor -
including possibly Ericsson or Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU) - could
still make a run at Bay Networks.
Several analysts maintained, however, they would be very surprised if
the deal between Nortel and Bay Networks fell apart.
Officials at Ascend and Bay Networks declined comment, while Northern
Telecom, 3Com and Ericsson couldn't be immediately reached for comment.
Shares of 3Com were recently up 2 1/4, or 9.1%, at 26 7/8 on Nasdaq
volume of 11.2 million compared with an average daily volume of 6.9
million.
Ascend's shares were recently up 1 5/8, or 3.3%, at 51 on Nasdaq
volume of 7.9 million compared with an average daily volume of 7
million.
Ericsson's shares were down 1 9/16, or 5.7%, at 25 7/8 on Nasdaq
volume of 6.8 million compared with an average daily volume of 4.2
million.
Bay Networks, meanwhile, was up 3/16, or 0.6%, at 30 3/16. And Nortel
was up 1/2, or 1%, at 53.
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