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Non-Tech : Ashton Technology (ASTN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Viapiano who wrote (812)	5/7/1999 1:13:00 PM
From: Sir Auric Goldfinger	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4443

FYI, neither is anyone else insterested in ASTN (but look at everybody who is involved in Tradepoint): Tradepoint Leaps as Reuters-Led Group May Buy Stake (Update1) London, May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Tradepoint Financial Networks Plc, a U.K. electronic stock-trading system, soared after Reuters Group Plc's Instinet Corp. and a group of securities firms said yesterday they plan to buy a majority stake in company. Tradepoint shares rose 123.5 pence, or 197 percent, to 186. Trading in the shares had been suspended since April 9, pending the announcement. The Reuters-led group said it will buy a 54.4 percent stake in the company for 14 million pounds (US$22.4 million). The purchasers are among Wall Street's biggest firms -- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., J.P. Morgan & Co., mutual-fund giant American Century, and electronic stock-trading network Archipelago LLC., owned in part by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. ''It's a good deal for all shareholders,'' said Ronald Cohen, chairman of Apax Partners & Co., which owns 17 percent of Tradepoint. ''The key for all electronic networkers is to achieve critical mass. With Instinet leading such a powerful consortium, ... the critical mass should be achieved.'' Tradepoint handles 160 million shares a month, compared with 1.1 billion shares daily on the rival London Stock Exchange, giving it 1 percent of the market. The company, which announced a pretax loss of 5.64 million pounds for the nine month ending December 1998, said it would need to boost its market share to 2 percent to break even. London-based Reuters is trying to develop a global electronic-trading network. Shares rose 3.5 pence, or 0.4 percent, to 835.5. Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, provides customers with access to Tradepoint's system. Bloomberg also competes with Reuters in providing news, information and trading systems.