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Technology Stocks : Winstar Comm. (WCII) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SteveG who wrote (4928)	4/4/1998 12:12:00 PM
From: DreamWeaver	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12468

SteveG, Bernard, All: I read this in the Fools evening news yesterday, and was wondering what your take on it is. With all the talk of consolidation going on in the industry, I wonder were GTE is heading. The Air-to-Ground business never really made much sense, but why sell its "underperforming wireless business" (I didn't know there was such a thing !!). The best part is the last sentence however where the company plans to acquire several sm. businesses... Given that they are not interested in "nonstrategic" businesses, what companies would qualify as small strategic bus.? CLEC's? LMDS providers? Others? ******************************************* <<<<<GTE (NYSE:GTE - news) rang up $1 to $61 7/16 after the telecommunications company announced late yesterday plans to generate $2-$3 billion by selling nonstrategic and underperforming businesses and to reduce costs by more than $500 million a year over two years through more than 1,500 job cuts and other streamlining measures. The company plans to sell its air-to-ground communications unit Airfone, some of its underperforming wireless businesses, and 5% to 8% of its local phone operations, mainly in rural areas. For the restructuring, GTE will take a first quarter charge of $0.83 per share but expects 1998 earnings before charges to increase at least 10% and "be in line with GTE's prior estimates of moderate growth compared to 1997." The company still expects EPS growth will reach 13% to 15% for 1999 and beyond. Following GTE's failed bid to acquire long-distance carrier MCI Communications (Nasdaq:MCIC - news) , the company said it plans to acquire several small businesses rather than one big company to enhance the services it offers. >>>>