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Non-Tech : Amati investors -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NYBellBoy who wrote (30206)	1/7/1998 3:11:00 AM
From: pat mudge	Respond to of 31386

[WSJ on telco mergers:] <<< The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition -- January 6, 1998 Telecom Analyst Expects Wave Of Merger Talk in New Year By BRIAN STEINBERG Dow Jones Newswires A leading telecommunications analyst said Tuesday that industry watchers should prepare themselves for a year marked by no small amount merger talk and regulatory debates. The consolidation theme appears "unstoppable," said Daniel Reingold, a senior telecommunications analyst with Merrill Lynch & Co. Among the driving factors, Mr. Reingold said, is steadily increasing pressure from the media, Congress and a court system filled with Republican appointees that the Federal Communications Commission "get the games going." Additionally, he said, regional Bells are eager to enter the nation's long-distance market. "You can see that the Bell companies are yearning for a greater geographical footprint" so that they'll be able to handle long-distance customers with operations in multiple regions, said Mr. Reingold. "It's one of the underlying drivers of these strategic horizontal consolidations." Mr. Reingold made the comments during a conference call with investors Tuesday. As examples, the analyst pointed to Monday's proposed $4.4 billion merger between SBC Communications Inc. and Southern New England Telecommunications Corp., as well as to a recent decision from a U.S. federal court in Texas which could eliminate some conditions barring the Bells from getting long-distance approval. The SBC-SNET link may have been the first merger of the new year, but Mr. Reingold believes it won't be the last, as horizontal consolidation becomes the trend of the day. The recent linkage of WorldCom Inc., Brooks Fiber Properties Inc. and MCI Communications Corp. has upped the ante considerably in the telecommunications world. WorldCom now has tendrils anchored in long-distance, data, Internet, and local-service arenas, and its competitors have been striving to follow suit. Alternate and smaller phone-service providers have been and will continue to be ripe for takeover, Mr. Reingold said. Companies such as wireless start-up Teligent Inc., Intermedia Communications Inc. and ICG Communications Inc. are possible takeover targets, he said, as are Cincinnati Bell Inc. and Frontier Corp. Teleport Communications Group Inc. has also been the subject of acquisition talk, but because Merrill Lynch advises the company, its analysts don't discuss its affairs. SBC's new Northeast "beachhead" in SNET could set up some sort of alliance between SBC and Bell Atlantic Corp., Mr. Reingold suggested. While he predicted "a series of rejections ahead" for Bells seeking long-distance approval from the FCC, Mr. Reingold said he believed a Bell would enter the market in the first half of 1999. The Bells "have gained ground in their negotiations" with regulators, he said. Of course, such activity threatens the standing and valuation of long-distance companies, he said, especially AT&T Corp., which has a large share of the residential market. "There is a cliff out there that the long-distance industry faces," Mr. Reingold said. As the Bells seek strategic ways to enter long-distance, AT&T could do the same to access the local market, he said, adding the nation's largest long-distance company might seek an independent like Cincinnati Bell to gain a local foothold.>>>>