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Non-Tech : E*Trade (NYSE:ET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Francis Muir who wrote (9535)	11/23/1999 12:52:00 PM
From: Green Receipt	Respond to of 13953

sure, biz.yahoo.com tis all there...

To: Francis Muir who wrote (9535)	11/23/1999 2:33:00 PM
From: Curtis E. Bemis	Respond to of 13953

Will E-Trade-Telebanc close in '99? If not, the parties can walk away from the merger pact By Emily Church, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 2:16 PM ET Nov 23, 1999 NewsWatch NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Shares in Telebanc dropped 13 percent Tuesday as investors grew cautious about the Internet bank's planned merger with online broker E-Trade. Analysts watching the widening spread in the share price between Telebanc (TBFC: news, msgs) and E-Trade (EGRP: news, msgs) said the market was casting doubts that the deal, which has been held up at the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), will take place. E-Trade shares were off 2 9/16 to 31 7/8. Telebanc was down 4 11/16 to 28 78 in recent trading. E-Trade late Monday filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue 35.6 million shares to Telebanc shareholders as part of the deal. The maximum price for the sale was set at $1.28 billion. A letter to Telebanc shareholders, which was included in the filing, detailed the market's concerns by giving notice that the deal might not close this year, as planned, and could be abandoned. "In order to complete the merger by year-end 1999, we will need the Office of Thrift Supervision to act on E-Trade's application on a schedule faster than their standard processing timetable," the filing read. "As a result, it is possible that we may not be able to complete the merger prior to Dec. 31, 1999. After Dec. 31, 1999, either E-Trade or Telebanc may terminate the merger agreement," the filing continued. The filing added to a feeling of uncertainity in the markets, said Greg Smith, analyst at Hambrech & Quist. "This adds more potential time risk, and then there's still a chance either party could walk away," he said. "This merger is still important for E-Trade, but if it did not go through, I don't think it derails its long-term vision even if it could potentially tarnish management's image over the short term." Dec. 28 vote Telebanc has called a special meeting of stockholders on Dec. 28 to vote on the deal, which calls for Telebanc holders to receive 1.05 shares of E-Trade for each one of their shares. E-Trade officials on Tuesday confirmed that a year-end closing looked less certain. "We've spent a lot of time in putting this together, and we'd love to be able to do it... but the circumstances at this point make it difficult to do that," said Patrick DiChiro, spokesman at the e-broker. According to Richard Zandi, analyst at Salomon Smith Barney, the OTS has several concerns -- the possibility of consumers getting confused about which products are FDIC insured, compliance with the "Community Reinvestment Act," maintaining capital adequacy after the merger and Softbank's 26-percent stake in E-Trade. Softbank is a Japanese Internet incubator. Separately, shares in the online brokerage group were mostly lower on Tuesday, coming down from a strong run-up in recent weeks on expectations of strong trading volumes in November. Schwab (SCH: news, msgs), TD Waterhouse (TWE: news, msgs) and Ameritrade (AMTD: news, msgs), to name a few, were all down in afternoon trading. Emily Church is the New York bureau chief for CBS MarketWatch.