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Technology Stocks : Zygo Corporation (ZIGO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DreaminMan who wrote (695)	3/8/2000 5:13:00 PM
From: DreaminMan	Respond to of 722

March 8, 2000 03:33 PM NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) - Shares of Zygo Corp. ZIGO , a maker of measurement and yield-improvement instruments used in high-tech industries, soared by 44 percent on Wednesday on investor bullishness over a planned acquisition, analysts said. Shares of Middlefield, Conn.-based Zygo jumped 19-9/16 to 64-7/16, up 44 percent, in mid-afternoon trading on Nasdaq. Volume was 1.5 million shares. Zygo said on Tuesday it signed a letter of intent to buy Firefly Technologies of Holliston, Mass., in a stock transaction valued at around $100 million. Analysts said it may have taken the market a while to digest the full import of the planned move. Firefly makes process-measurement equipment for the telecommunications and optical data-storage markets. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of this year. "This acquisition gets them into the optical fiber telecommunications market, which is a high-demand sector," said Jeff Baker, analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group in Minneapolis. "These are enabling technologies for creating additional bandwidth, which is a high-growth area," Baker said. He reiterated his "buy" rating on Zygo stock. "Zygo has excellent core technologies that fit in well with Firefly," Baker said. William Swanson, an analyst at Miller, Johnson & Kuehn Inc. in Minneapolis, on Wednesday raised his price target to $70 from $48 per share "due to the significant potential in the optical communications market." "The explosive growth in this market could provide the company with a significant growth opportunity," Swanson wrote in a research note. He reiterated his "buy" recommendation. A Zygo spokeswoman had no comment. ((--Matthew Lewis, Hartford newsroom, (860) 727-0224)) REUTERS