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Microcap & Penny Stocks : FRANKLIN TELECOM (FTEL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Marvin Mansky who wrote (35190)	6/24/1998 9:38:00 AM
From: Seth L.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41046

Thanks Marvin.. under the topic of interesting but off topic I copied this from AOL news wire: AT&T Will Purchase TCI for $32 Billion AOL Investment Snapshot (tm): T or TCOMA By DAVID E. KALISH .c The Associated Press NEW YORK (June 24) - In a bid to expand its reach to millions of customers, AT&T Corp. announced today it is buying Tele-Communications Inc. for $32 billion, a bold deal that would pair two of the nation's largest telecommunications and cable television companies. The all-stock transaction would allow AT&T to provide digital and Internet services to TCI's 14 million cable customers across the United States. AT&T is the nation's largest telecom company; TCI has access to millions of homes in dozens of states. The deal would be the third biggest ever in the telecommunications industry after SBC Communications Inc.'s planned $60.1 billion purchase of Ameritech Corp. in a deal between Baby Bell companies and WorldCom Inc.'s planned $37 billion purchase of MCI Communications Inc. AT&T is paying just under $51 a share to buy all of TCI's outstanding shares. That represents a 31 percent premium over TCI's closing price of $38.69 on Tuesday on the Nasdadq Stock Market. In addition to paying $32 billion in stock, AT&T would assume TCI's huge debt of $16 billion. Under the deal, which must be approved by stockholders and government regulators, TCI's programming arm, Liberty Media Group, would continue to be operated independently and run by TCI chief executive John C. Malone. AT&T Chairman C. Michael Armstrong has promised to beef up the company's weak spots and branch out into new areas. Faced with stiff competition in its traditional long-distance market, AT&T is hoping to get into local phone service and Internet-related businesses. Getting access to TCI's cable customers would be a major step toward that goal. Eventually, it could give AT&T the ability to offer local phone service through TCI's existing cable hook-ups to customers' homes. ''Today we're beginning to answer a big part of the question about how we will provide local service to U.S. consumers,'' Armstrong said in announcing the deal. Despite a 1996 federal law intended to open up local phone markets to new competition, AT&T and other long-distance companies largely have sat on the sidelines. AT&T has scrapped a series of strategies for breaking into local phone service and has said the regional phone monopolies were charging too much for leasing local lines for it to make a profit. A TCI deal is ''exactly what AT&T has needed to burst into the local market,'' said Jeffrey Kagan, an independent telecommunications consultant based in Atlanta. ''AT&T would have the ability to offer a bundle they were never able to offer before.'' AT&T made a move toward entering the local phone services market in January by buying Teleport Communications Group for $11.3 billion. Teleport, which is partly owned by a group of cable companies, provides local phone services to business. A combination of AT&T with a cable company would be a return to a strategy that was abandoned in the early 1990s. The two industries have remained apart since the collapse of Bell Atlantic Corp.'s proposed $26 billion purchase of TCI in 1993. But AT&T is gambling that TCI's upgrades of its network to handle digital services will enable it to provide more sophisticated telecom services to households, including Internet access. Under the agreement, AT&T would own TCI's cable businesses while maintaining an alliance with Liberty Media Group, which includes stakes in some of America's most popular cable networks, including Discovery, Black Entertainment Television and Fox/Liberty Networks. The deal ultimately would result in AT&T having three ''tracking stocks,'' which are stocks issued to follow the performance of a particular division at a company. One new ''tracking stock'' would be for Liberty Media. AT&T also would issue new stock to cover its newly acquired cable TV business unit and its consumer phone business. A third would cover AT&T's business customers. AT&T also would control TCI's stake in AtHome Corp., a leading provider of high-speed Internet access whose investors also include Cox Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp. AP-NY-06-24-98 0840EDT Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.