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Technology Stocks : NextLevel (NLV) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ryan Weisman who wrote (374)	1/5/1998 4:57:00 AM
From: Redhead	Respond to of 475

To all, Just found this, thought this thread would be interested. I personally think this could go today. Good luck to all and keep smiling. Monday January 5, 3:58 am Eastern Time Sony plans to buy NextLevel stake-WSJ NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news; 6758.T) plans to take a five percent stake in Next Level System Inc, a maker of advanced digital TV set-top devices, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Quoting sources familiar with the matter, the newspaper said the Japanese electronics giant plans to pay $188 million for the stake, which could give it a prime spot in the U.S. cable market. The publication said that under terms of the deal, Sony would pay about $25 apiece for 7.5 million shares of NextLevel, so it can distribute the U.S. company's set-top boxes throughout North America. The price would be a 38 percent premium over NextLevel's closing price of $18.1875 on Friday, eclipsing NextLevel's 52-week high of $21.50 by more than 16 percent. The newspaper quoted a Sony Electronics spokesman based in Park Ridge, N.J., as saying, ''We are forming this alliance to develop digital TV technologies.'' Sony beat competition from Thomson Consumer Electronics, a Thomson SA (THMP.PA) unit, in the deal, which is subject to a definitive agreement. The new set-top boxes, which probably would not hit the market for two years or so, would have far more memory and computer power than current models. Redhead

To: Ryan Weisman who wrote (374)	1/5/1998 5:23:00 AM
From: Larry S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 475

From todays WSJ: Including the Sony deal, NextLevel is now positioned to swap or sell off nearly a third of itself to other companies, and maybe more. NextLevel has discussed the possibility of selling a big chunk of itself to Microsoft Corp., among others, according to people familiar with the matter. Several executives said NextLevel had even discussed possibly selling the company outright to Microsoft, but those talks have cooled. Even so, discussions about "other possible arrangements" between Microsoft and NextLevel continue "almost daily," one executive said.