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Technology Stocks : FORE Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jach who wrote (9111)	9/8/1998 2:05:00 PM
From: Joseph A. Aboaf	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12559

Yes, but somehow nobody seems to want to buy it !! Also according to the following we know exactly what to expect; so it is not going to go anywhere... Joe Networking-Gear Maker Fore Sees Earnings Diluted By Acquisition Dow Jones Online News, Friday, August 28, 1998 at 17:23 By Ross Kerber, Staff Reporter PITTSBURGH -(Dow Jones)- Fore Systems Inc., a telecommunications-networking gear maker, Friday said it expects to earn roughly 59 cents a share for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1999. Fore Systems (FORE) earlier this week agreed to acquire closely held Berkeley Networks in a stock deal valued at about $250 million. Thomas Gill, Fore's president and chief executive, told Dow Jones that the acquisition will dilute its earnings by four cents to six cents a share for the fiscal year, before restructuring charges. Prior to the agreement, Fore said, the mean estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by First Call was that Fore would earn 64 cents for the current fiscal year. For the year ended March 31, 1998, Fore reported net income of $35.2 million, or 35 cents a share, on revenue of $458.4 million. Fore agreed to buy Berkeley Networks for 8.475 million newly-issued shares. Under the terms of the agreement, Fore said it would also grant options to acquire about 607,000 shares to Berkeley Networks options holders. In addition, Fore will pay equity holders of Berkeley Networks up to an additional $30 million if certain goals are met. Fore said it will take a restructuring charge of $1.80 to $2.20 a share during the current fiscal quarter, ending Sept. 30, to cover a write-off of in-process research and development. Fore also will establish a reserve of about five cents a share to cover other costs. Bruce Haney, Fore's chief financial officer, said the new business should add from three cents to six cents a share to earnings for the fiscal year ending in March 2000. By the end of the current fiscal year, he said, Fore hopes the effect of the transaction on ongoing earnings will be "right around break-even," he said. The deal gives Fore the ability to sell Berkeley's advanced computer-networking devices that work closely with Microsoft Corp.'s operating-system software. But after Fore announced the deal after the close of trading Tuesday, its shares fell from $24.25 to as low as $16.625 over the next two days. In addition to a general decline among technology stocks, the shares may have fallen because analysts viewed Fore as a less-likely takeover candidate following the acquisition news, Gill said. Fore's shares have since recovered somewhat, and closed Friday at $19.813. Jeremy Duke, director of the networking group at Cahner In-Stat Group in Newton, Mass., said the agreement is likely to make Fore more competitive against bigger networking-equipment rivals such as Cisco Systems Inc., which already offers high-speed connectivity devices meant for smaller corporate users. "Normally I'm skeptical of these deals, because you have integration issues," Duke said. "But what Fore has done enhances their product offerings for high-speed infrastructure sales." Ross Kerber: 201-938-5099 Copyright (c) 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.