Lucent near merger with Ascend in
$16bn deal - FT
WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Lucent Technologies Inc
(NYSE:LU - news) is close to announcing a merger with Ascend
Communications (Nasdaq:ASND - news) in a deal likely to be
valued at more than $16 billion, the London-based Financial Times reports in Monday editions.
The Financial Times quoted sources close to the talks as saying that an announcement was likely to
be made this week, possibly as early as Wednesday.
Under the merger deal, Lucent, with a market capitalization of about $152 billion, will take over
Ascend, which is valued at about $15.5 billion, the paper said.
The newspaper said Ascend shareholders were expected to welcome the deal, which would likely
include a premium.
Talks between the companies are said to have been going for several weeks, according to the
newspaper report. The sources said that while talks were now reaching an advanced stage, they
could still fall apart.
Lucent, formerly part of AT&T (NYSE:T - news), is one of the oldest suppliers of traditional
telephone equipment. Ascend's background is in data networking equipment for linking computers.
Ascend is said by analysts to have strengths in two particularly fast-growing areas asynchronous
transfer mode and internet protocol routing technology.
<end paste> Ref: biz.yahoo.com
Cheers:
Chris |
