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Technology Stocks : Lucent Technologies (LU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IngotWeTrust who wrote (2484)	4/27/1998 4:39:00 PM
From: William Hunt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21876

ole 49r ---the attached will give you an idea of some of the players LU is competing against in the NORTH AMERICAN market--Lucent to Acquire Yurie Systems In Deal Worth About $1 Billion An INTERACTIVE JOURNAL News Roundup Telecommunications-equipment giant Lucent Technologies Inc. Monday announced it agreed to acquire Yurie Systems Inc., a maker of advanced networking gear, for about $1 billion. The deal extends a string of purchases by Lucent and other firms that are racing to roll out products designed to integrate voice and data networks. The voice and data-networking industries are rapidly converging as both rush to develop gear that can simultaneously handle voice, video and data. Let's Make a Deal NorTel Buys Stake in Avici (April 14) NorTel to Acquire Aptis for About $290 Million (March 18) Cabletron Agrees to Acquire Hot Gigabit Start-Up Yago (Jan. 15) Lucent Will Acquire Prominet In a Bet on Gigabit Ethernet (Dec. 11, 1997) Nokia Strikes $120 Million Deal to Acquire Ipsilon (Dec. 9, 1997) Lucent Agrees to Acquire Livingston for $650 Million (Oct. 16, 1997) * * * Company Profile: Lucent Technologies Yurie, of Landover, Md., makes gear based on the speedy ATM, or asynchronous transfer mode, transmission technology. The firm announced a marketing deal with Lucent last summer under which some of its products have been marketed under the Lucent brand name. Yurie had a stellar IPO last year when its shares surged nearly 33% during the first day of trading. Yurie makes products for telecom companies, as well as corporate and government users. In trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market Monday, shares of Yurie climbed $3.125, or 10%, to $34.625. Shares of Lucent, meanwhile, slid $3.25 to $70.125 on the New York Stock Exchange. Yurie's stock also spiked sharply at the end of the day Friday, finishing the day up 9.1%. Options volume Friday was 2,156, compared to a daily average of 384. Most of the volume was in calls, which indicates that traders expected the stock to rise. Spokesmen for Nasdaq and the Chicago Board of Options did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Friday's trading. But for those following Lucent, such a deal shouldn't have been much of a surprise. "Lucent is absolutely following the plan they set out a long time ago," said Jeff Pittsburg, a partner in the Garden City, N.Y., firm Goldis Pittsburg Institutional Services, which specializes in telecommunications. "The acquisition is a strategic positive for Lucent," said Lehman Brothers Inc. analyst Tim Luke. "It gives them key, core technology, but the price is at the high end. It's a fairly expensive acquisition." Lucent officials defended the acquisition price in a conference call Monday afternoon. Yurie has "relatively small revenue," said Bill O'Shea, president of Lucent's data-networking-systems group. "But they are early to market with leadership products in a market that's about to explode. Our expectation is that the top line is going to expand very rapidly." Lucent has been caught in an acquisitions race of late with rivals such as Canadian telecom-equipment maker Northern Telecom Ltd. Two weeks ago, NorTel announced the purchase of a 20% stake in Avici Systems Inc., a developer of high-speed Internet switching equipment; last month, it acquired networking start-up Aptis Communications Inc. In December, Finnish telecom-equipment company Nokia Oy announced plans to acquire Ipsilon Networks Inc., the pioneer of a networking-technology effort called IP switching. Voice- and data-networking companies alike are stockpiling promising technology and forming key alliances. Wall Street has been waiting for computer-networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. to announce a partnership with either Lucent or NorTel. But some analysts say Cisco may be prepared to attack the North American market alone if necessary. Lucent, of Murray Hill, N.J., said it will post a charge in the third quarter to account for the purchase of Yurie and that it expects the transaction will "slightly" reduce per-share earnings in the first full year of operation. The offer values Yurie at about $35 a share. Lucent said it expects to close the deal by the end of May. Shareholders who represent more than 50% of Yurie's outstanding shares and the boards of both companies have agreed to the deal. Lucent said it doesn't expect cuts in staff at Yurie as a result of the merger. If anything, officials said, growth in the market will make it important to retain employees -- and perhaps eventually hire more. Also ASCEND is a big player in frame relay technology while being #1 in ATM capabilities also . We can not pay cash for them ---would likely happen in the fall if at all BEST WISHES BILL