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Strategies & Market Trends : Market Gems:Stocks w/Strong Earnings and High Tech. Rank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SMALL FRY who wrote (64194)	10/1/1999 1:30:00 PM
From: Jerry Olson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 120523

LOL..hahahahaha they gave me 500 shares today...don't even know what the heck the symbol is??? sheesh!!!

To: SMALL FRY who wrote (64194)	10/1/1999 1:34:00 PM
From: kendall harmon	Respond to of 120523

WCG--more on this one <<Analysts see strong demand for Williams Cos. spin-off By Denise Duclaux NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The Wall Street debut of Williams Communications Group Inc. (NYSE:WCG - news) should meet hearty investor demand as analysts laud the aggressive growth strategy and respected parent company behind the fiber-optic network owner. The Tulsa, Okla.-based firm, being spun off of energy giant Williams Cos. Inc. (NYSE:WMB - news), is slated to sell 29.6 million shares at an expected price of $21 to $23 on Thursday. Williams Communications could raise $680 million through the deal, which is being underwritten by Salomon Smith Barney, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, making it one of the biggest deals this year. ''This is a real company and it's stable and it's growing,'' said Irv deGraw, research director at financial information provider WorldFinanceNet.com. He added Williams Communications should see a 15 percent to 30 percent rise on its first day of trading, an increase that will be tempered by the sheer bulk of the offering. Williams Communications has the backing of parent Williams Cos., which will retain a majority stake in the spinoff. Williams Cos., with a foothold in both the energy and telecommunications fields, boasts 1998 revenues of $7.7 billion. In 1995, it sold its long-distance fiber-optic network to telecom company LDDS, now known as MCI WorldCom Inc.(NasdaqNM:WCOM - news), for about $2.5 billion. But Williams Cos. held onto a 9,700 route-mile single fiber optic strand on the original network and reentered the wholesale long-distance market in early 1998, ending a three-year non-compete pact with WorldCom. Williams Cos. later said it would sell a minority stake in Williams Communications to raise money and further expand its network. ''Williams Communications is certain to be winner,'' said Jeanne Schaaf, a senior analyst at Forrester Research. ''They have a seasoned telecom management...they are continuing to build out their network. They will have one of the largest networks, and it will be state of the art.'' Williams Communications expects its network to comprise 33,120 miles of fiber optic cable connecting 125 cities by the end of the year 2000, according to its Securities & Exchange Commission filing. The company said 65 percent of the network is installed and 59 percent is operational. ''They are definitely growing very quickly,'' said Beth Moore, a senior analyst at Yankee Group. ''They have done tremendous things...they will continue to grow. It's going to be careful growth...because they know how to do it with a small staff and they are putting the capital in carefully.'' Analysts say the expansion plan would make the network of Williams Communications larger than those of rivals Qwest Communications International Inc. (NasdaqNM:QWST - news) and Level 3 Communications Inc. (NasdaqNM:LVLT - news). ''Our network unit's objective is to become the leading nationwide provider of voice, data, Internet and video services to national and international communications providers,'' Williams said in its filing. Williams Communications also has heavy-duty allies. The company has pacts with SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC - news), Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) and Telefonos de Mexico (NYSE:TMX - news), under which the trio will invest a total of at least $725 million in its common stock, according to its filing. Williams is also issuing more than $1.6 billion in notes.>>