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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: emil who wrote (27435)	12/10/1997 6:51:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Wonder what the LU/ASND theorists think about this: strengthen the possibility or does it seem less likely? LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES said it will acquire Prominet Corp, a privately-held start-up developer of local area network (LAN) switching equipment, for about $200 million in stock. Marlborough, Mass.-based Prominet develops switches that connect PCs, workstations and servers using Gigabit Ethernet and integrated routing, referred to as Layer2/Layer 3 capabilities in the data networking industry. The purchase is expected to result in a one-time, non-cash charge against earnings. Excluding the charge, the impact of the purchase to earnings in fiscal 1998 is expected to be immaterial, Lucent said. (Reuters 09:55 AM ET 12/10/97) I believe it strengthens the theory. LU has indicated their desire to enter the networking sector via aquisitions. They have been making aquisitions. Livingston and Prominet Corp recently. None of these make a dent in LU's balance sheet. They have acquired equipment makers for some remote access and LAN. They do not have high end remote access and WAN equipment makers. I wonder who has that technology???? COMS would be redunadant since they have LAN equipment. Time will tell. Glenn

To: emil who wrote (27435)	12/10/1997 7:22:00 PM
From: Sector Investor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

<<Wonder what the LU/ASND theorists think about this: strengthen the possibility or does it seem less likely?>> In terms of possibilities - neither. The amount is too small to be even a good tip on a possible purchase. GE technology will be a high growth area and does not overlap with anything that ASND would offer. This does show that LU is making some fast moves (OCTEL, Livingston and now Prominet in 3 months), so others are likely. I feel that they took a year after spinoff to get their long term strategy in place and look over some possible moves (the SHVA, FORE, MADGF rumors earlier) and now are getting serious. If they want ASND, they may have to move fast, as ASND is unlikely (IMO) to be "running loose" by next October.