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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (76345)	3/15/1999 9:30:00 AM
From: Diamond Jim	Respond to of 186894

03/15 08:25 Europe takes cool view on Intel, MS telecom pact By Neal Boudette FRANKFURT, March 15 (Reuters) - The prospect of a four-company alliance that could open a vast new market for Intel Corp <INTC.O> chips and Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> software caused few ripples in Europe on Monday. Neither Intel nor Microsoft shares were active in London ahead of a news conference in the United States to announce an alliance linking the two firms with Hewlett-Packard Co <HWP.N> and telecom equipment maker Northern Telecom Ltd <NTL.TO>. Earlier on Monday the Financial Times reported Nortel would use Intel Pentium processors and Microsoft's Windows NT to build networking equipment that can handle data, voice and video communications. The deal could allow Intel and Microsoft, whose products already dominate the world's computer industry, to push into an industry worth some $250 billion, the FT said. Nortel has scheduled a news conference at 1845 GMT in San Jose, California, involving chief executives John Roth of Nortel, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Craig Barret of Intel and HP's Lewis Platt. But in Europe, reaction ahead of the release of the deal's details has been muted. "It's hard to say what the impact is until you know what the annoucement is," said Susen Sarkar, a telecom equipment analyst at the Yankee Group in London. In London, Intel and Microsoft shares were drawing little interest from buyers or sellers in Instinet trading. Equipment makers like Nortel, Lucent Technologies Inc <LU.N> and LM Ericsson <LMEb.ST> often develop proprietary chips, components and software for the switches, routers and servers they supply to telephone companies and large corporations. The FT report said using "off-the-shelf" components like Pentium chips and Windows NT could bring down equipment prices rapidly -- as standard components have already done dramatically in the computer industry. Sarkar said there is certainly room for stardard techologies in telecom systems. "Because of the economy of scale in the telecommunications industry, it would start some cost-savings," he said. But one financial analyst in London was not sure a deal would have much impact, and noted that telecom vendors already use some Intel and Microsoft products. "Nokia is a big customer of Intel's," said the analyst, who did not want to be named. The FT said Nortel would build the equipment and HP would market it under its name. The products could enable corporations to build a single network to carry their internal phone calls and computer data. Many companies now have separate networks, although digital technology is making it easier to combine separate systems.