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

To: Foad who wrote (58921)	1/13/1999 1:20:00 AM
From: Tim Luke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

so what will the shorts do...what will they do??

To: Foad who wrote (58921)	1/13/1999 2:58:00 AM
From: Foad	Respond to of 61433

NY Times Story - $19.3 Billion January 13, 1999 After Months of Talk, Lucent to Buy Ascend for $19 Billion By LAURA M. HOLSON Lucent Technologies is expected to announce Wednesday that it is acquiring Ascend Communications Inc., the data networking company, in a deal valued at about $19.3 billion, people close to the talks said. The board of Lucent, the telephone equipment maker, approved the acquisition on Tuesday. Ascend's board, which was still discussing the deal late Tuesday night, was expected to approve it as well, a person close to Ascend said. But as with all negotiations, a deal could still fall apart until the board approves it. Ascend, which is based in Alameda, Calif., but also has significant operations in Boston, is expected to be absorbed into Lucent's data services business with Lucent's headquarters remaining in Murray Hill, N.J. Mory Ejabat, the president and chief executive of Ascend, will stay on through the transition, a person close to the talks said. As part of the deal, Ascend stockholders will receive 0.825 share of Lucent for each of their shares. Based on Lucent's closing price Tuesday of $107.875, that would value the offer at about $89 a share, or a premium of 19 percent. The impending Ascend-Lucent announcement has drawn little awe from analysts because the two companies have been talking on and off for more than a year and a half. "This has been the deal Ascend has been talking about for months," said Kevin Slocum, an analyst at Soundview Technology Group. "Now the financial community gets the deal and it's like, whatever." Not for Lucent. It stands to benefit the most from the combination. The move is necessary because, with Ascend's products, the company will be more able to compete against rivals like Cisco Systems, the data networking company based in San Jose, Calif. For months, Ejabat insisted his company could go it alone and do battle with bigger rivals. But, Slocum said, "Ascend knew it needed a partner to be a bigger player." A deal between the two companies started to come together over the last couple of weeks. Richard McGinn, chief executive officer of Lucent, is said to have worked out much of the details himself with Ejabat. But much of the intense negotiating occurred over the past few days as executives at the two companies worked out the final details of a combination. Ascend was advised by Credit Suisse First Boston and Lucent was advised by Goldman, Sachs & Co.