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Technology Stocks : JDS Uniphase (JDSU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HoyaBob who wrote (1843)	11/7/1999 8:20:00 PM
From: Chris Stovin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24042

Bob - JDS Uniphase trades as JDSU on the Nasdaq and as JDU on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE). The canadian JDU shares are known as Exchangeable shares and can be exchanged for the JDSU ($US denomination)at any time. As a result, the JDU shares trade at the same price when the US exchange rate is factored in. The JDU shares are totally driven by the US (JDSU) share prices. As I understand it, holders of the former Uniphase shares had to take a tax hit right away when the two companies merged. It was deemd to be a taxable event. Whereas, the JDU Canadian shares did not get hit. It will become a taxable event on those shares only after you exchange them for the JDSU shares or, of course, if you out and out sell them. Holding the JDU shares since the merger provides a little bit of flexibility. If you want to offset some of the losses of your dogs at year end you can simply exchange some of the JDU for JDSU. You are able to offset the losses without losing your shares. I kind of like that! The exchangeable shares were created when the JDS Fitel (Canadian Co.) merged with Uniphase. They did this to satisfy the JDS Fitel Canadian shareholders and Revenue Canada. Canadians are not allowed to hold more than 20% foreign content in their RRSPs so having the exchangeable shares bypassed this. In answer to your question... absolutely no difference in trading in Canadian (JDU) vs. US (JDSU)per above. However, there is probably less liquidity wrt the Canadian shares since the share price is quite high given the difference in Cdn-US dollar. (roughly 1.47 times greater). In fact, I seem to recall that as of last week or the week before, JDU shares were the highest share price of any company on the TSE. (Let's hope that continues...even after a split!!) The trading of options is also affected somewhat. The spread in the bid and ask is typically $2.00 CDN with the Canadian options while the spread is much more reasonable (30 cents or so US) with the US options. I'll stop rambling. Hope this sheds some light on things. Cheers! Chris