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Strategies & Market Trends : Point and Figure Charting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ms. X who wrote (12521)	1/11/1999 12:16:00 AM
From: Bull4Now	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 34811

Well, I know it's not directly related to PnF, but many folks following you and this thread have been anticipating this. Looks as though Lucent WILL finally buy Ascend. My opinion is that Lucent realizes (i.e., they're finally putting their money where their mouth is) that voice and data WILL converge onto a single network - they've said it in the past, but are now ponying up the cash to try to implement it. I wish LU luck in combining two EXTERMELY different company cultures (and geographic locations) successfully. NorTel currently gives BAY acquired (and future BAY) employees stock options, but gives NO options to their old world voice employees - IMO, it's impossible to compete with the new world using this old world approach. On the whole, Lucent employees do not receive stock options - Ascend employees do. In my opinion, this reinforces the belief that Cisco made the correct decision over two years ago to converge voice and data inside their hardware networking equipment and IOS (Internet Operating System) software. Let the games begin ! (BTW, I own Cisco stock). Article follows: Lucent Near Merger With Ascend In $16bn Deal - FT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lucent Technologies Inc (NYSE:LU - news) is close to announcing a merger with Ascend Communications in a deal likely to be valued at more than $16 billion, the London-based Financial Times reports in Monday editions. The Financial Times quoted sources close to the talks as saying that an announcement was likely to be made this week, possibly as early as Wednesday. Under the merger deal, Lucent, with a market capitalization of about $152 billion, will take over Ascend, which is valued at about $15.5 billion, the paper said. The newspaper said Ascend shareholders were expected to welcome the deal, which would likely include a premium. Talks between the companies are said to have been going for several weeks, according to the newspaper report. The sources said that while talks were now reaching an advanced stage, they could still fall apart. Lucent, formerly part of AT&T, is one of the oldest suppliers of traditional telephone equipment. Ascend's background is in data networking equipment for linking computers. Ascend is said by analysts to have strengths in two particularly fast-growing areas asynchronous transfer mode and internet protocol routing technology.