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Technology Stocks : (LVLT) - Level 3 Communications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Furley who wrote (314)	3/12/1998 5:24:00 PM
From: Eric D. Rankin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3873

Mr. Furley, I think your letter to Ms. Strangl expressed the questions that are on all the shareholders minds. It seems that L3 has been mysteriously quiet... I understand that the weather in Omaha over the last few days may have slowed things down a bit. I suspect that the flood of interest and the piles of snow may impede any prompt response. Regards, E. Rankin

To: Jim Furley who wrote (314)	3/12/1998 8:13:00 PM
From: stealthy	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 3873

ALL: " Heart of the Matter ? " Based upon previous posts dealing with other various requests for information from official sources, it seems clear that the company intends to remain silent regarding many of the most critical issues until it can be released widely to the public as an official announcement; That timing will probably be TOO LATE for the immediate needs of we more recent purchasers of KIWT shares ; Therefore, (IMHO) a NEXT BEST approach to assessing the severity of our current predicament may consist of the thread's valiant consolidated attempt to reach some "objective" conclusion regarding the following key question : " Are there any compeling reasons for the company to give some special consideration to the trading price of KIWT shares on the Bulletin Board, in its deliberations regarding how exactly to effect the public listing of class D shares ????? " 1. My impression is that the company management probably regard this BB trading as an annoyance at best, and it's probably NOT something they believe should be driving their deliberations regarding such key considerations as the following : a. When or whether to split the stock b. Determining the appropriate ratio of the split c. When or whether to do an IPO d. At what initial price an IPO should be offered 2. The company's serious desire to list the company seems to be motivated largely by the following valid concerns : a. To satisfy the strong conviction on the part of Mr. Crowe and other key management that it's essential to put in place a set of highly liquid L3 stock options for L3 employees; This to permit initial recruitment (and subsequent motivation) of the best engineering/computing talent, in spite of the continuing shortage of such talent in the current marketplace. b. To provide for current employees of the company (for the first time), a new and highly liquid public market in which to participate, in the free trading of their Class D shares; c. To provide a mechanism to facilitate future acquisitions using company stock; 3. It seems clear there is a strong commitment of the company to satisfy these specific requirements, and to execute it as soon as is practical; However, it's NOT at all clear to me why the recent activities of BB trading MUST or SHOULD enter into their planning process; They will likely proceed to put the listing process in place in the optimum manner to satisfy the above needs, and WITHOUT regard for how it impacts the BB traders; 4. Afterall, from the company viewpoint it seems the BB trading has only served as an unintended but acceptable early opportunity for some of its employees to sell some Class D shares; If a subsequent IPO (or public listing) should result in public listed L3 shares trading at a substantial discount to the latest BB price, why should the company care one way or the other ? 5. Another minor observation for your consideration : a. Earlier posts have made reference to selected company employees, having offered relatively large blocks of company Class D shares for sale on the BB; One of these mentions a 3.5 M share block recently placed for sale via the BB, and this having potentially driven the recent slide; b. However, consider why would such a large shareholder (who is likely very well "connected" in the company ) opt to liquidate such a large block, knowing that by the time his total sale has been accomodated, he will have depressed the BB price substantially in such a thinly traded market; c. Why would he choose to do this only a couple of weeks before the end of the month, when the new listing will occur and when there MAY be further beneficial splits, and/or MAY be an aggressive run up in price of the IPO, and which is CERTAIN to be a much more liquid market for his large block of shares ? d. It would seem that he chose to take his chances on the awkward BB "descending" sale process, because he had serious doubts that his return would be better on the more liquid market in only a couple of weeks; ( This could also raise question as to why he wouldn't sell even more of his holdings via the BB, but in it's present mode it seems doubtful that the BB market could accomodate it, without a further percipitous drop) 6. As mentioned in previous post, a large US bank would surely do DD, before accumulating such a stock; However, we don't know at what price those shares were bought; So the bank's shares do appear to indicate there is value in the company, but the big question is value as WHAT PRICE ? ; Thus, is seems the banks position (in itself) lends little to the credibility of the current price level of the BB shares, unless you could learn at what price level they were obtained. Please pardon the lengthy diatribe; Any & all comments on this somewhat "dark" view are appreciated; ( IS there some good reason to believe the company WILL/SHOULD take the BB trading prices into account ? ) Stealthy