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Technology Stocks : Newbridge Networks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pat mudge who wrote (4198)	4/23/1998 8:42:00 AM
From: Roman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

INTERVIEW - Lucent searches for more acquisitions By Jessica Hall NEW YORK, April 22 (Reuters) - Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU - news), which has spent more than $3 billion on acquisitions over the past year, is still searching for potential targets, Donald Peterson, its chief financial officer, said Wednesday. Analysts and industry sources have speculated Lucent may make a major acquisition later this year when it is freed from a two-year restriction against pooling-of-interest combinations that would unravel its favorable tax-free spin-off from AT&T. But Peterson said the company would not necessarily wait until the restriction ends on October 1 before making another acquisition. He declined to name any specific targets or sectors. ''We have not been in a strategy of waiting. We actively look at acquisitions and made half a dozen in the last year ... and we'll continue to do that,'' Peterson said in an interview after the company announced better-than-expected quarterly earnings. ''I would not see a gate up there that keeps us from doing anything that we think is essential. These markets move too quickly to think you're going to sit out until you're ready,'' he said. Since its spin-off from AT&T in 1996, Lucent has acquired companies in areas such as microelectronics, messaging and data networking. ''We'll continue to look in those areas and others. I wouldn't rule out any area of our business for potential acquisitions if it made sense within our business strategy,'' he said. Lucent is a leader in the telecommunications equipment market and is becoming an increasingly powerful player in the data and Internet markets, analysts said. Analysts said Lucent could use an acquisition to leap-frog into a leading position in the data market or to extend its reach internationally. A wide range of companies, including Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO - news) and Finland's Nokia Ab (NOKSa.HE), have been mentioned as potential targets. Lucent's acquisition prospects -- as well as the company's solid fundamentals and rosy long-term growth outlook -- have pushed its shares up more than 90 percent since the beginning of the year. ''Lucent looks like the Mona Lisa,'' said Alfred Goldman, a technical analyst with A.G. Edwards and Sons. Goldman said Lucent's stock faces no major near-term resistance and momentum appears positive. The company's strong second-quarter results pushed the stock to a fresh high of 78-15/16 on Wednesday before it settled slightly to 76-13/16 by late afternoon. In the second quarter ended March 31, Lucent's net income, excluding a one-time $157 million acquisition-related charge, rose to $180 million, or 14 cents a share, from $66 million, or 5 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. The results beat the consensus Wall Street forecast of 9 cents a share, according to the First Call research service. The company has beaten expectations every quarter since its 1996 spin-off from AT&T. Peterson said the company was comfortable with the current range of 1998 earnings estimates of $1.50 to $1.61 a share. ''We continue to see substantial growth in our market. We're operating in a way we see as taking share in that market. At the same time we've got control of our costs at the margin level and the cost level,'' he said. Gross margins for the second quarter improved to 44.2 percent from 42.1 percent in the year-ago quarter, reflecting a more favorable mix of products and services as well as improved management of costs. Peterson said second-quarter gross margins were ''indicative'' of gross margins for the year. ''I see a continuing good mix in our business, around the same kind of thing we've seen in the first two quarters.... The margin for the year looks like it will be good by comparison to some of our prior years,'' he said.

To: pat mudge who wrote (4198)	4/23/1998 2:13:00 PM
From: Technopeasant	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

Buzz-saw indeed. How you find the time to put this stuff together is beyond me. The sheer volume would wear the index fingers off my hands if I tried to type it all. Back in post # 3352 Mark Kubisz reported that Newbridge had laid off a further group of people from UB on February 2 and that this would result in a further charge against the next quarter. Evidently, IF this is true, the UB saga is not behind us. Why this does not square with Charbonneau's statement is unclear to me. Perhaps they will account for the costs in a different way. The timing is interesting, particularly if NN wanted to clear up the UB mess and move on. Speculating on NN's motives is clearly not going to do me any good here, but I have to ask myself if there are other costs which will spread over the two quarters. I hope not. I believe I referred to some limited further costs associated with the writedown. I don't believe I said the results would be disappointing, I think I used the term flat. We obviously won't agree about whether the content of some of the announcements constitutes hype since some of the them, (Erlanger, Baylor, Kuala Lumpur) did not strike me as being that significant. I do agree that a million here and there adds up to real money. The relative lack of news was really the focus of my comment. I had the impression that the NN news machine had been somewhat quiet recently. Certainly if you look back at previous quarters the number of releases has dropped by half in this quarter v/s the last several. I don't know why, and maybe I made a mistake by speculating that there may be change in communications strategy? My fingers are worn out.