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Technology Stocks : BAY Ntwks (under House) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn McDougall who wrote (5829)	5/14/1998 2:55:00 AM
From: blankmind	Respond to of 6980

Thursday May 14, 1:21 am Eastern Time Bay Networks seen as takeover target (adds details, comments) PALO ALTO, Calif., May 13 (Reuters) - The stock of computer networking company Bay Networks Inc. rose sharply Wednesday amid new speculation the company was likely to merge with a large telecommunications equipment company. Bay Networks declined to comment on a news wire service report that it had rejected a takeover offer from Northern Telecom (NTL.TO - news), and one source quoted in the story later denied having any knowledge of such a bid. Northern Telecom also declined comment. But the speculation persisted as several analysts said a takeover was likely in view of industry conditions, and that Northern Telecom was one of a number of likely suitors. ''It makes sense with all the consolidation going on in this space,'' said Kevin Fong, a partner with the Menlo Park, Calif.- venture capital firm Mayfield Fund. ''I think in the long term for the networking industry, bigness is the key. The issue whether or not to partner is not an issue anymore.'' Fong stressed, however, that news wire reports that he had spoken to Bay Networks officials about a merger were false. He said his comments were based purely on observations about the state of the industry. Fong did say that Northern Telecom would be on his list of likely buyers of Bay Networks. He also named Lucent Inc. (LU - news), Alcatel Alsthom (ALA - news), Siemens AG (SIEG.F) and ''maybe a Japanese company.'' ''I think it's a likely takeover target for Northern Telecom or Lucent,'' added Fahnestock & Co. analyst John Duffy. ''These big telecommunications companies like to expand into data networking.'' Duffy also said his comments were purely speculative and that he had no information about actual talks between any of the companies. Other analysts who attended a meeting with Bay in Las Vegas last week said they left the meeting with the sense that Bay was more open than ever to a takeover offer, although they had not heard Northern Telecom discussed by name. NationsBanc Montgomery Securities analyst Al Tobia said he had interpreted the ''body language'' of Bay executives as indicating they were more open to possible offers. Bay, a supplier of sophisticated corporate computer network equipment, has fallen behind rivals Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO - news) and 3Com Corp. (COMS - news) in courting the growing phone carrier equipment market. The latest disappointment came with the company's March quarter results, when net earnings fell 52 percent versus a year ago and revenue was lower than in the December quarter. Bay also has guided analysts to lower expectations for the current quarter ending in June. But it has frequently been seen as an attractive takeover target by traditional telephone network equipment suppliers such as Lucent, Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson (LMEb.ST) or Nortel, which use Bay as to make a broad entry into the corporate network equipment business. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------