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Technology Stocks : Orckit (ORCT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SoMo who wrote (1446)	8/24/1998 8:33:00 AM
From: savolainen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1998

[mergers] Hi SoMo, yes, the steven levy story is indeed interesting, and worth watching... had not connected the dots... thanks ... just noticed that levy has also taken over coverage of lu at lehman as well... have been thinking that orctf would prefer to become another ecilf rather than be taken over by one.. am still inclined to think that management enjoys competing and calling their own shots.. they have invested a lot of time and energy getting to this point.. and would be a little surprised if they sold now before they were able to play out their hand.. it has been rumored they've received very good offers in the past which they have turned down.. on the other hand, now might be a good time to leverage their strengths within another organization.. also if a merger/ acquisition is in the works, altho eci is probably most likely, am not ruling out fujitsu, lu, or siemens as potential suitors... and by any chance have you heard how any of the latest silicon (adsl, hdsl2, or vdsl) is doing? some idle speculation on merger/acquisitions: --- eci can think of several reasons pro and con on the likihood of a merger deal between eci and orctf, but am thinking the big unknown might be the strategic plans of some other israeli players.. there could well be a bigger game being played out in which an orctf/ eci merger would only be a small piece... there has been speculation that koor (and others including clal) might try to establish one telecommunications company out of eci, telrad, and tadiran.. and maybe orctf... to say that the web of inter-relationships in the israeli corporate world is quite complex is probably an understatement.. and am not even going to attempt to handicap the odds on this coming to pass.. but would think that if we're headed down that road, orctf might be involved.. my biggest concern regarding an eci/ orctf merger is that full orctf valuation may not be realized.. but then again paneth and tamir don't strike me as the type to offer anyone discounts.. --- fujitsu, lucent, or siemens if eci/orctf is not in the cards can think of several other big players with deep pockets who are probably interested: fujitsu, lu and siemens.. would think fujitsu might have the most to lose if orctf were to fall into a competitor's arms... fujitsu has three separate long term strategic alliance/partnerships with orctf: adsl silicon and companion chips (fujitsu microelectronics); xdsl systems for n.america including shared manufacturing and cooperative development of next generation equipment (fujitsu network communications); and the latest now is a strategic alliance for asia and europe which will also include integration of orctf technology into fujitsu's onu's etc for full service access netorks... seems they have a lot riding on orctf (and vice versa) lucent and orctf go back a ways.. believe they might have tried to buy in when the orctf ipo almost fell thru... they have been working together on the hdsl side in europe in at least spain and the netherlands, would think they might be a prime suspect for the (unnannounced) orctf hdsl partner in the (unnannounced) orctf dt hdsl win, as well... on the adsl side there is the 1000 line netherlands trial where they have been working together and maybe the current dt tender.. also there has been much speculation that lu is in the market for adsl expertise including silicon support.. am thinking adi most likely target, but orctf would fit very nicely as well.. also lucent has been shopping recently in israel (lannet) and... stephen levy also just assumed coverage of lu for lehman.. siemens and orctf also have a fair amount of history... they may be the fourth largest orctf shareholder (after tamir, paneth, and clal).. if indeed star (and berel) = seimens, after the secondary they hold 9.4% of shares... orctf has been working with seimens on the vdsl front for some time... and have heard rumored siemens' adsl might not be all it could be... best wishes s