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Technology Stocks : CSN-Convergys (NYSE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IngotWeTrust who wrote (22)	5/26/1998 10:30:00 PM
From: debra vogt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 84

Hope you don't mind me coming in here, but I have been looking at this company for the last week and today was glad I hadn't bought. Do you really think this is a good buying opportunity. Found the following on Yahoo: Tuesday May 26, 9:15 pm Eastern Time FOCUS-Cincinnati Bell's Q2 wake-up call hits stock By Marguerite Nugent CLEVELAND, May 26 (Reuters) - Cincinnati Bell Inc. woke up Wall Street Tuesday with news that second-quarter earnings will disappoint. Earlier Tuesday, the company said it expects earnings for the second quarter ending June 30, 1998, to range between 27 cents and 31 cents a share, compared with First Call's consensus estimate of 31 cents a share. Cincinnati Bell's stock dropped sharply after the news and some analysts said that if the stock price fails to recover some of what it lost, the company may be better off postponing the planned initial public offering for its unit Convergys Corp. After the market closed, Convergys filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the proposed offering of $425 million in common stock. ''We have not backed off from the offering,'' a company spokesman had said, before the filing late Tuesday afternoon. The second-quarter earnings forecast took Wall Street by surprise. But some analysts said the steps being taken to streamline what will be Convergys' business will be positive for the bottom line down the road. ''They have said they are going ahead with the sale (IPO) but if the stock doesn't firm up, they could postpone it until the fall,'' said Theodore Moreau, an analyst at Robert Bard and Co. Inc. "It (the news) was a surprise," he said. Cincinnati Bell's stock fell over four points before recovering slightly to end Tuesday off $3.94 at $32.44 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The company's second-quarter forecast said revenues would be $550 million to $575 million. In the second quarter of 1997, Cincinnati Bell earned $0.37 a share, before special credits of $0.02 a share, on revenues of $433 million. The latest forecast in part reflects pressure on the operations of its customer care operation, which makes up much of the unit for which the IPO is being developed. ''The two companies we're talking about (in the forecast) are the target of the offering,'' Buckhout said, when asked about the stock's sharp decline. Officials at Cincinnati Bell were walking on eggshells, if talking at all, during a teleconference Tuesday because of the ''quiet period'' associated with the filing of the registration statement for the offering, analysts said. The lower-than-expected forecast resulted from problems in part with Solutions Customer Care, also known as Transtech, which Cincinnati Bell acquired in February from AT&T Corp. (T - news). Cincinnati Bell said its outlook reflects lower-than-expected revenues from Transtech, particularly the revenues from AT&T, which are coming in below the $300 million agreed to in a contract covering the sale and below the same period in 1997. If the shortfall continues through the 12 months ending February 28, 1999, AT&T has agreed to pay 40 percent of that shortfall, according to Cincinnati Bell. Cincinnati Bell's spokesman said the company and AT&T are working together to establish a plan to ensure that AT&T meets its commitment under the agreement. MATRIXX, the Cincinnati Bell unit under which AT&T's Solutions Customer Care operates, also is continuing a restructuring plan adopted in the fourth quarter of 1997 to increase productivity and improve service to clients. The company said MATRIXX also is redistributing work and cutting its salaried work force and working with another Cincinnati Bell unit, CBIS, to improve efficiency and cut costs. It said those efforts could result in a charge later in 1998, although Cincinnati Bell's Buckhout said the company still does not know if a charge will be taken and if it is, how large it will be. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More Quotes and News: AT&T Corp (NYSE:T - news)