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Technology Stocks : Alcatel (ALA) and France -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Fancy who wrote (2637)	10/20/2000 5:08:37 PM
From: Steve Fancy	Respond to of 3891

Alcatel CFO: Optronics Mulling Acquisitions In 2001 Dow Jones Newswires PARIS -- Alcatel SA's (ALA) optronics division is considering making acquisitions in 2001 to gain access to some new technologies, Alcatel Chief Financial Officer Jean-Pierre Halbron said Friday. However, Halbron also told a press conference that Alcatel Optronics won't make acquisitions before its share price has stabilized, which could take two to three months. The French telecommunications equipment supplier Friday issued 16.5 million tracking shares of Alcatel Optronics. "If we do something in the first quarter of 2001, it will already be very good," he said. He declined to name any potential targets in the optronics sector, but said any acquisition will be relative to Alcatel Optronics' shares available on the market. Alcatel's tracking stock issue accounted for some 17% of the optronics division's value. Halbron said Alcatel's intention is to increase the Optronics shares available on the market, "but not too suddenly." "I don't think we'll go from 20% to 60% in one year, but the aim is to go to 35% or 40%," Halbron said. But Alcatel Optronics needs to be able to react quickly, and the tracking stock should help the French group do so as it gets the currency it needs to make acquisitions. "The business is growing at a rate of over 50% per year. So we need to go fast. Either we develop products ourselves or we go and get them somewhere else," Halbron said. -By Valerie Venck, Dow Jones Newswires; 331-4017-1740; valerie.venck@dowjones.com