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To: Greg h2o who wrote (19742)	3/23/2000 12:33:00 PM
From: signist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42804

Via Yahoo Alcatel Will Complain About JDS Uniphase's E-Tek Buy (Update1) 3/22/00 10:43:00 AM Source: Bloomberg News Paris, March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Alcatel SA, Europe's No. 2 phone-equipment maker, said it will complain to U.S. antitrust enforcers that JDS Uniphase Corp. will have the power to raise prices if the biggest maker of fiber-optic components is allowed to buy rival E-Tek Dynamics Inc. JDS Uniphase agreed in January to buy E-Tek in a transaction now valued at $19.7 billion. The U.S. Department of Justice is scrutinizing the proposal and interviewing customers of both companies to determine whether the acquisition would hurt competition in the market for parts that boost the capacity of fiber-optic networks. Alcatel, E-Tek's No. 1 customer, wants the acquisition delayed until it can find another source of components, said Alcatel USA Vice President of Product Strategy Paul Harrison. That process that could take as long as a year, he said. 'On some components there are no other suppliers,' Harrison said. 'We don't want to get into a situation where there's only a single supplier.' Complaints by big customers like Alcatel 'bode ill for the deal,' said Steven Newborn, a Washington antitrust attorney with Clifford Chance, Rogers and Wells. 'If I were betting, this would not go through' unless JDS Uniphase and E-Tek could negotiate a long-term supply contract 'that keeps them for a year as happy as they could possibly be,' he said. Alcatel fears that JDS Uniphase will increase prices of some products once it completes the purchase. Currently, Alcatel can pressure the companies -- its two biggest suppliers of the parts - - to keep prices down by offering more business to one than the other. E-Tek got a third of its $72.5 million in sales from Alcatel in its fiscal second quarter, which ended Jan. 1. Widened Spread Alcatel, based in Paris, is the biggest maker of fiber-optic transmission systems used to send large amounts of phone and data traffic back and forth undersea. It also makes systems for land networks and plans to double its sales of those products in North America to $400 million this year, targeting phone companies such as MCI WorldCom Inc., Sprint Corp., Qwest Communications International Inc. and Level 3 Communications Inc. The spread between the value of JDS Uniphase's offer for each share of E-Tek stock and the trading price of an E-Tek share has widened to $53.80 from $28.77 Monday, an indication of market uncertainty about the transaction's prospects for getting antitrust clearance. JDS Uniphase shares rose 3 to 130 in early afternoon trading. E-Tek rose 4 to 234. Harrison said he hasn't been contacted by Justice Department investigators and didn't know if other Alcatel officials had been interviewed by phone or in person. messages.yahoo.com

To: Greg h2o who wrote (19742)	3/23/2000 12:33:00 PM
From: MangoBoy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42804

Nope. :-)