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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (132830)	11/5/2001 1:37:05 PM
From: Wyätt Gwyön	Respond to of 436258

how hard would it be to corner the market on broomsticks? Demand for glasses soars with Harry Potter mania ananova.com

To: Les H who wrote (132830)	11/5/2001 5:03:59 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Wonder when they'll hold their estate sale? Nortel plans garage sales SIMON TUCK Monday, November 5, 2001 OTTAWA -- Nortel Networks Corp. is poised to hold a series of auctions to unload thousands of pieces of high-performance manufacturing equipment designed for its shrinking fibre-optics business, among the telecommunications equipment industry's biggest corporate garage sales to date. A British auction company says Nortel hopes to sell more than 20,000 pieces of manufacturing gear previously used in plants in Ottawa, Britain, and its pump-laser plant in Switzerland acquired earlier this year from JDS Uniphase Corp. for $3-billion (U.S.) in stock. The auctioneers, London-based Henry Butcher International Ltd., say most of the equipment included in the "major asset disposal" was purchased by Nortel in 2000 and this year. Analysts say the roster of manufacturing equipment includes plenty of gear that is still current, but that Nortel doesn't need as much of it because demand for its own products has tumbled dramatically in the past year. Nortel, the global leader in making the fibre-optic networks used to carry telecommunications traffic, and its competitors have been pounded this year by a dramatic downturn in the industry. That's caused the Brampton, Ont.-based company to cut 49,500 jobs, vacate more than 200 buildings, reduce its product line, chop research and sell less-promising parts of its business. Nortel wouldn't agree to an interview about the pending auctions. Spokeswoman Tina Warren said in a prepared statement "the sales are not related to the closing of any plants or businesses and it is not our practice to discuss revenues from these kind of sales." One analyst estimated that the auctions could fetch Nortel at least $100-million, although much of the equipment may sell for less than 20 per cent of what it originally cost. Analysts say the market for used equipment isn't strong because many companies are shrinking their operations, although there have been persistent rumours in recent months that many of the industry's largest players have been buying up their own used equipment to help fuel sales of their new products. Richard Woo, a technology analyst at Thomson Kernaghan & Co. Ltd. in Montreal, said Nortel's auctions will likely attract plenty of cash-strapped startups, outsource manufacturing specialists, and even universities that need to stock labs at affordable prices. "There's some good stuff in here." Analysts say used equipment sales aren't rare in the telecommunications industry but that Nortel's sale is different because it's more public and much larger than most others. Nortel's auctions are scheduled to be held later this month. In Ottawa, at the only auction being held in Canada, Nortel hopes to sell more than 200 pieces of varian implanters, mask aligners, wave etchers and other equipment used in gallium arsenide wafer fabrication and indium phosphide laser processing. The public auctions in Ottawa will be held Nov. 28 and 29, although private and on-line bids will also be accepted. All sales are final, the advertisement says, and do not come with warranties. Analysts say that Nortel needs less manufacturing capacity in fibre-optics because sales have plummeted. Optics, including both network equipment and the components used in the networks, was the company's growth engine in 2000, as sales soared to about $10-billion, almost double the approximately $5.2-billion it had posted the previous year. One analyst said he expects the company's optical operation to record sales this year of about $2.4-billion.