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To: Sawtooth who wrote (49092)	11/11/1999 9:35:00 AM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Microsoft & Loral> Microsoft to unveil key partnership By CNET News.com Staff November 11, 1999, 5:50 a.m. PT update Microsoft's chief executive and president are preparing a major announcement that may involve a significant investment in a company that provides high-speed communications services. Microsoft said this morning that it plans to announce a "significant strategic alliance" at 9:00 a.m. PT in a telephone conference call with chief executive Bill Gates and president Steve Ballmer. The company issed a cryptic statement yesterday, touching off a flurry of reports and speculation of possible deals. Bloomberg quoted industry analysts who speculated that Microsoft might buy Lockheed Martin's stake in satellite company Loral. Reuters, meanwhile, reported last night that top executives of Gigamedia, a Taiwanese company that provides high-speed Internet connections, were in Seattle negotiating an investment by the Redmond, Washington, software giant. Microsoft refused to comment on either of the reports. Earlier yesterday, the company said only that an important announcement would be made, adding that Gates and Ballmer would be on hand for the event. The timing and nature of any deal expanding Microsoft's business interests are particularly sensitive, given U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's findings of fact only days ago that said the company already holds a monopoly status in computer operating systems with its ubiquitous Windows software. At a shareholders meeting yesterday, however, Gates steadfastly refused to relent on his company's right to continue technological advancements despite the federal antitrust trial over which Jackson presides. To that end, the Loral and Gigamedia reports are both plausible, as Microsoft has made no secret about its intentions to delve into the communications pipelines that are crucial to the development of the Internet and, therefore, its software business. Microsoft took a $5 billion stake in AT&T this spring and has made many other investments in Baby Bells and other communications companies. Bloomberg cited Keith Patriquin of Loomis, Sayles and other analysts as having heard that Microsoft may buy Lockheed Martin's 14 percent share in Loral, valued at $565 million. Initially under pressure from the Justice Department to sell its stake to win approval for its planned purchase of Comsat, Lockheed has apparently decided to divest even though the government has dropped that condition. In the Gigamedia report, an unidentified executive told Reuters that his company is discussing a Microsoft investment of T$1 billion ($31.6 million) and that more would be disclosed shortly. "I can't give you more details because our top-level company leaders are all in Seattle and only they know," the executive was quoted as saying. In addition to its stunning investment in AT&T, a byproduct of last spring's bidding war for MediaOne, Microsoft on Friday invested $200 million in broadband service provider Teligent. That's on top of a $200 million stake in telecom Qwest, $600 million in wireless player Nextel, $300 million in Dutch cable leader United Pan-Europe Communications, and $500 million in NTL, Britain's third-largest cable television operator. Before the AT&T deal, Microsoft's largest broadband investment was a $1 billion stake in Comcast, one of the nation's largest cable television operators, in June 1997. Microsoft further owns a 10 percent stake in Road Runner, Time Warner's cable Internet service.