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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SKIP PAUL who wrote (21493)	1/18/1999 2:18:00 AM
From: SKIP PAUL	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Saturday January 16, 1:52 pm Eastern Time AirTouch still sees possible Bell Atlantic link By Jessica Hall NEW YORK, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Wireless phone giant AirTouch Communications Inc. (NYSE:ATI - news), which agreed to be bought by Britain's Vodafone Group Plc, said it still hopes to forge a national U.S. partnership with its previous suitor, Bell Atlantic Corp. (NYSE:BEL - news). AirTouch agreed late on Friday to be acquired by Vodafone for about $56 billion, ending two weeks of speculation over the fate of San Francisco-based AirTouch, the world's largest independent wireless phone company. The agreement with Vodafone was announced just hours after Bell Atlantic, the largest U.S. local phone company, dropped out of the bidding. Last week, MCI WorldCom also ruled itself out after briefly considering a possible bid for AirTouch. AirTouch Chairman Sam Ginn said on Saturday in a telephone interview he still aims to talk with Bell Atlantic about creating a coast-to-coast U.S. presence or ''footprint.'' AirTouch and Bell Atlantic are currently partners in a joint venture called PrimeCo. ''We will sit down with Bell Atlantic and talk about creating a national footprint on a partnership basis (that) we could not create on a merger basis. We still need a national footprint,'' Ginn said. ''The preferred option would be to negotiate a relationship with Bell Atlantic on a partnership basis because our assets fit like hand and glove. We could still partner to create a national footprint,'' Ginn said. Bell Atlantic declined to comment on any potential, future talks with AirTouch. Bell Atlantic filed a lawsuit late on Friday against AirTouch, seeking to void certain clauses in their PrimeCo partnership that prevent the two from competing, Bell Atlantic spokesman Jim Gerace said on Saturday. The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco Federal District Court. Bell Atlantic, which plans to buy Irving, Texas-based GTE Corp (NYSE:GTE - news), wants to eliminate the so-called ''non-compete'' clause in the PrimeCo partnership agreement so the combined Bell Atlantic-GTE can compete against AirTouch in certain markets where they overlap, such as San Francisco, Gerace said. Ginn declined to comment on the lawsuit, since he said he had not read it. Bell Atlantic had wanted to buy San Francisco-based AirTouch for its West Coast presence, which would have allowed the New York-based Baby Bell to break out of its confined East Coast market that is dwarfed by national players such as AT&T Corp (NYSE:T - news) and Sprint PCS (NYSE:PCS - news). But Ginn said the proposal from Vodafone offered more dynamic international growth opportunities than AirTouch would have had with Bell Atlantic. ''The Bell Atlantic proposal was solving a domestic issue that needed to be solved. With them, we would have been more of a U.S.-centric company. With Vodafone our priorities will be global,'' Ginn said. There were several reasons AirTouch chose Vodafone, including price, Ginn said. Bell Atlantic reportedly offered about $45 billion for AirTouch, according to press reports. ''But the most compelling reasons were strategic reasons. With Vodafone, we have the opportunity to grow an international wireless company and position ourselves as the largest in the world,'' Ginn said. AirTouch's international networks and its strength in southern Europe will mesh well with Vodafone's northern European network. AirTouch will also give Vodafone a foothold in the United States, a market it had previously shied away from. ''We will establish an incredible European network, with our only overlap being in Germany. We can combine our purchasing power, ... set up distribution networks ... and have the technical capability and resources to expand in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere,'' Ginn said. AirTouch, which has partnerships with both Vodafone and AirTouch, had spoken with both companies from time to time about joining forces. The takeover talks, however, only accelerated in the past few weeks, he said. Vodafone said it had wanted to buy AirTouch's international assets about 18 months ago, but recently became interested in buying the entire company. Ginn said it never made sense to break up AirTouch and sell the international and U.S. assets separately. ''We don't think we can be a global player without having a presence in the U.S. Separating our company in that way made no sense for us. The industry is globalizing,'' Ginn said.

To: SKIP PAUL who wrote (21493)	1/18/1999 2:58:00 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 152472

Brazil's currency woes: dailynews.yahoo.com Yawn! Media trying to drum up some currency panics and international finance mayhem. No chance now that the worldwide 'real' panic in August/September amounted to a fizzer thanks to Japan/USA big time printing and interest rate manoeuvres. Well, not any time soon anyway. 15% devaluation is chicken feed. We used to do those before breakfast every few months in NZ in the bad old days. But check out this at the end of the article: ---------------------------------------------------------------- There was some good news for the Brazilian government on Friday when leading international telecommunications and utilities companies bought two telephone concessions and announced massive investments in the country. ''We are absolutely confident, we are certain that this problem will pass,'' said Almeida Rodrigues, president of the local subsidiary of U.S. telecommunications firm Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq:QCOM - news) ''People who invest in telecommunications aren't thinking in the short term, they're thinking over the next 15 or 20 years.'' ----------------------------------------------------------------- It might interest Almeida that this investor is looking for total payback with big profit in much less than 20 years or 15 years. That is many technology transitions. Some of us want our money returned and with 25% profit per year attached after 5 years by which time the gadgets we invested in should be ready for the scrap heap. This is risky stuff. Back the wrong technology and we lose our money. While we can think in long term ways for investing in cdmaOne and WWeb and even Globalstar, which can take a decade to create, building networks is a different investment and the money needs to flow back quicker than that. Mquarkce PS: Thanks Paul, looks as though 1.2million Q! shares with AirTouch isn't significant in a $56bn deal with Vodafone. $5 is a good exercise price [established in 1989 I think] which shows what a good investment it has been despite the despair Caxton and others feel over the past three or four years. Don't give up! The wolf REALLY is here this time and it REALLY is going to go up to $80 by the end of January.