Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jhild who wrote (13587)	3/10/1998 8:41:00 AM
From: Moonray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22053

Does Qwest-LCI make sense? Analysts worry $4.4 billion merger may spread management too thin March 9 - Qwest Communications needed customers for its state-of-the-art, fiber-optic network. LCI International needed data services to offer its burgeoning base of long-distance callers. By announcing plans Monday to link arms in a $4.4 billion merger, the two companies went a long way toward filling each other's most obvious holes. Now the question is: Are they trying to do too much? QWEST IS BARELY a year old, and only 22 percent of its proposed 16,000-mile network is complete. Yet since going public last June, Qwest's stock has soared from $14 to $36 a share, including a 2-for-1 split late last month. That financial muscle allowed the Denver-based company to engineer the merger with LCI. When the deal closes, Qwest will distribute 122.4 million new shares at $42 a piece to LCI shareholders. Qwest's spot in the driver's seat is rather remarkable, considering that Qwest recorded revenues of $697 million in 1997 while LCI pulled in $1.6 billion. Qwest's strength is based on investors' belief that data communications over the Internet and corporate intranets, rather than voice calls, are the key to success in the evolving telecommunications field. Indeed, Qwest Chief Executive Officer Joseph Nacchio boasted Monday that Qwest's network "transmits data faster than routers can move traffic, faster than operating systems can currently handle," and he said the company is working with hardware manufacturers like 3Com to develop speedier network backbone equipment. Qwest has been selling that bandwidth to corporate data crunchers and has also served as a bandwidth wholesaler, leasing network capacity to other telecommunications carriers. msnbc.com o~~~ O