How about NN warning so they can be more easily digested by siemens with less damage to Siemens bottom line. Just a thought. Interesting read below.
Canada's Newbridge rises on takeover of rival
TORONTO, April 26 (Reuters) - Shares in networking and telecoms firm Newbridge Networks Corp. <NNC.TO> <NN.N> headed higher on Monday after Britain's General Electric Co. Plc <GEC.L> agreed to buy U.S. rival FORE Systems Inc. <FORE.O>
Stock in Kanata, Ontario-based Newbridge rose nearly 6 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange, adding C$3 to C$56 by midday, off a session peak of C$57.40. In New York, it climbed $2.13 to $38.13.
Analysts noted that before the FORE deal, FORE and Newbridge were the two biggest publicly owned companies in the field.
Now any suitor that wants to acquire a large company with asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) telecommunications switching technology will have to go shopping in Kanata, said Rob MacLellan, analyst at CT Securities.
In Monday's momentum-driven market, investors are betting that Newbridge has "a greater scarcity value, because they're the only large-scale ATM player left," MacLellan said.
"But the Siemens relationship makes it far too complicated for most people in my view," MacLellan said. Newbridge and Germany's Siemens AG <SIEG.F> have a wide-ranging alliance.
"I would think if anybody buys Newbridge, it'll be Siemens, and it'll be some point in the future," he said.
Paul Silverstein, senior analyst at BancBoston Robertson Stephens, said if Newbridge was a takeover target, "there remains the same laundry list of candidates who remain interested."
His list includes Sweden's Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson <LMEb.ST>, Finland's Nokia Ab, Oy <NOKSa.HE>, U.S.-based Tellabs Inc. <TLAB.O> and Siemens.
Investors could also take a more bearish view that Newbridge's valuation is too rich for a merger, MacLellan added. "Everybody's been bought but Newbridge, and maybe Newbridge isn't actually open to being acquired, at least not at these levels," he said.
($1=$1.48 Canadian)
15:11 04-26-99 |
