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

To: pat mudge who wrote (5660)	7/22/1998 4:42:00 PM
From: zbyslaw owczarczyk	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 18016

Pat, below you will find that Williams Cos. Inc. see customers-premise equipment business is posting record orders levels. This trend should indicate simmilar activity among AT&T (NN) customers. Williams sees communications business improving TULSA, Okla., July 22 (Reuters) - Williams Cos. Inc. (WMB - news), reporting lower second quarter profits, said Wednesday it did not expect its communications business to be profitable this year, but it sees the business improving as the year progresses. ''On the communications side, progress on our national fiber-optic network is exceeding our expectations in both cost and construction time, and our customer-premise equipment business is posting record levels of new orders,'' Keith Bailey, chief executive officer, said in a statement. ''Although we are obviously disappointed by the current earnings level, we are very pleased with the progress being made in positioning the company to meet its strategic goals, and we remain confident in our ability to achieve our longer-term performance objectives.'' While not anticipating 1998 will be a profitable year, the quarterly financial performance of Williams' communications business is expected to improve as the year progresses, the company said. Communications reported a second quarter operating loss of $10.5 million, compared with an operating profit of $3.3 million in the same quarter of 1997. Williams's overall lower second-quarter profits were exacerbated by pretax charges of $25 million due to federal regulatory actions and additional costs related to the MAPCO acquisition. The charges cut per share net income to $0.14. The First Call consensus estimate was $0.21. ''While there are bright spots due to our growth in scale from the acquisition of MAPCO, conditions in segments of the unregulated energy market remain difficult,'' Bailey said. Energy Services operating profits, including most of the $25 million in pretax charges, declined to $106.3 million in the quarter from $115.2 million a year earlier. The company said the charges included a $15.5 million loss provision related to a July 15 order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that challenges the rate-making methodology in some markets served by the company's petroleum products pipeline. The order, which would require refunds to some customers, will be appealed. Also included were $6.1 million in additional MAPCO merger-related costs, with $3.4 million in similar costs recorded as general corporate expenses. Williams said natural gas trading profits and per-unit natural gas liquids margins were down significantly from a year earlier, trimming operating profits for this segment to $54.8 million from $69.8 million. Partially offsetting these negative impacts were substantial increases in operating profit from crude oil and refined petroleum product trading activities, and the favorable settlement of a long-term transportation contract. Bailey said ''Our gas pipeline business continues to perform very well, which is testimony to our aggressive attention to fully serving existing customers while attacking new markets in the most cost-efficient manner possible.'' Gas Pipeline, the nation's largest transporter of natural gas through systems that span the country, reported second quarter operating profit of $153 million, compared $131.2 million a year earlier. Williams said the quarter's operating loss reflects the costs of creating a business platform and the continuing losses in the advanced applications business. Noting the second quarter operating loss was significantly less than the first quarter's, it said this was due primarily to improvements in the solutions business, where new orders reached record levels in June. During the quarter, Williams said, a significant lawsuit with WorldCom was settled, resulting in a clarification that Williams's multimedia network can be used for Internet services and will become unrestricted by July 2001. In addition, Williams will have the right to acquire additional miles of fiber from WorldCom. More Quotes and News: The Williams Companies Inc (NYSE:WMB - news) Related News Categories: US Market News

To: pat mudge who wrote (5660)	7/22/1998 4:59:00 PM
From: NNThinker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18016

"The manufacturers supplying the key network components - Marconi Communications of the UK, Newbridge Networks of Canada and Cisco Systems - will share more than œ1bn ($1.65bn) of capital expenditure. Marconi Communications is expected to announce that it has been awarded contracts worth more than œ500m for the basic network technology." So Pat, how much of the remaining $800M slice (after discounting Marconi's $800M) do you think NN can get - assuming that NN and Cisco are providing competing equipment? How much of this BT contract was already announced previously? Thanks.