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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Christopher Reed who wrote (58566)	1/10/1999 11:27:00 PM
From: H.A.M.	Respond to of 61433

INVESTCORP: Investor to acquire Ascend division FINANCIAL TIMES MONDAY JANUARY 11 1999 By William Lewis in New York Investcorp, the global investment group, has agreed to acquire the Stratus Enterprise Computer division of Ascend Communications, the US telecommunications equipment company. For Investcorp, one of the world's leading private equity groups, this technology deal provides further evidence of its move into new industry sectors. In recent years Investcorp has become best known for its retail brand investments, including Saks, the US store group, Tiffany and Gucci. However, last year the group made its first healthcare sector investment when it acquired Harborside Healthcare, a US nursing home company. Terms of the deal with Ascend are not being disclosed, but it is said by people close to the transaction to be more than $100m in value. Investcorp is partnering Stratus management, which is investing about $3m to $4m. The sell-off follows Ascend's takeover of Stratus Computer last October. At the time the US group made clear it wanted to sell off Stratus's non-telecoms business, and the deal with Investcorp goes most of the way to achieving that. The new independent company, to be called Stratus Computer, provides specialised computer servers and related services for so-called mission-critical business applications. In the year to December 31 1998, the division Investcorp is buying had revenues of about $275m. "As a leading player in the growing market for continuous availability computing systems, Stratus is well positioned, with both its current product platforms and those currently under development, to capitalise on the anticipated growth in this market," said Christopher Stadler, a member of Investcorp's management committee. Mory Ejabat, president and chief executive officer of Ascend, said "our divestitures of Stratus's non-telco businesses will strengthen Ascend's focus and leadership in the telecommunications market". The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year. Founded in 1982, Investcorp has completed a total of more than 70 deals worth about $12bn.