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Date: Tuesday, September 21, 1999, 9:54 AM -0400
From: Faulkner Information Services <flash@faulkner.com>
To: ???
Subject: Faulkner Comm Flash - 09/21/99 - (Part 2 of 2)

Mergers/Acquisitions (Cont'd)

	 Manneman plans to attempt acquire the nine regional cable-television
networks being divested from its rival, Deutsche Telekom. DT, however, is
wary of selling the networks to a large competitor and might refuse the
deal. Metromedia Fiber Network and AboveNet reported the completion of their
merger. AboveNet shareholders will receive 1.175 shares of Metromedia Class
A common stock. AboveNet will have access to Metromedia's planned network of
1.1 million fiber miles in North America and Europe.
	 Prodigy formed a definitive acquisition agreement through which Prodigy
will acquire a more than 80,000-billable subscriber-base, 140 employees and
the network infrastructure of the small-business Web hosting company,
BizOnThe.Net. Prodigy will pay approximately $100 million in Prodigy stock
and cash.
	 PSINet acquired privately held Elender Informatikai es Szamitastechnikai,
Hungary's second largest ISP. Elender offers dial-up access, leased lines,
ISDN, and other Internet related services to business and consumers. The
purchase is PSINet's first in Central Europe.
         Qwest Communications and US WEST received approval for their $35
billion merger from US antitrust regulators, according to the Justice
Department. The two companies need to secure approvals from the FCC and
seven states. Shareholders from both companies are expected to vote on the
merger on Nov 2. The deal should close in the second quarter of 2000.
	 In another deal, Qwest and a group of high-tech investment funds finalized
their $251 million equity investment in Advanced Radio Telecom (ART). The
deal makes Qwest the largest investor in ART. The two companies will be
working together during the build-out of ART's broadband wireless/fiber
network. Sprint finalized its purchase of $11 million in convertible
	 debentures from Hybrid Networks. Along with the purchase, two Sprint
executives found places on the Hybrid's board of directors. They are
Timothy S. Sutton, president of Sprint's Broadband Wireless Group, and
Theodore H. Schell, Sprint's senior vice president, corporate strategy and
development. Hybrid also was the recipient of $7.1 million from venture
capital sources.
	 The boards of directors of Viacom and CBSd Corporation unanimously agreed
to merge the two companies for $80 billion. The company, to be named Viacom,
will have operations in film, television, radio, publishing, and the
Internet. Sumner Redstone will remain Chairman and CEO of Viacom and Mel
Karmazin will assume the positions of President and COO. The board of
directors will consist of the 10 current Viacom members and eight members
appointed by CBS. The merger is subject to FCC and CBS shareholders approval
as well as expiration of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period. The
transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2000.

Middleware 
	 Lotus Development and Microsoft reported that they will be integrating
Microsoft's Windows Media Technologies into Lotus' Notes Release 5 and
Domino Release 5 (R5) products via IBM's HotMedia Connect for Domino
technology. Initially, Lotus plans to ship a version of Microsoft Windows
Media Player with an upcoming version of Lotus Notes R5. Lotus and Microsoft
intend to integrate upcoming versions of Windows Media Technologies with a
future update version of both Notes R5 and Domino R5.

Personnel and Organizational Changes 
	 3Com plans to spin off its Palm Computing division into a separate,
publicly traded, company. 3Com claims a spin-off will allow each company to
focus independently on growth opportunities in the most promising markets.
In Palm's case, this includes licensing the software that runs the handheld
computers and Palm-branded devices. Additionally, 3Com directors James L.
Barksdale and Gordon A. Cambell will move to Palm's board of directors.
	 America Online appointed William J. Raduchel to the position of CTO,
reporting to Chairman and CEO Steve Case. The company also said that Marc
Andreessen is shifting from the CTO position to a part-time strategic
advisor role.
	 AT&T instituted a hiring freeze and said it may cut its work force in its
long distance service operation by thousands by end of 2000, according to
the New York Times. The company--which has been expanding other areas of its
business such as wireless and data services--reportedly will shift some of
those employees into other segments of its business. But, according to the
published report, some jobs will be lost. These layoffs, which are supposed
to offset, in part, the cost of AT&T's cable company acquisitions, come on
top of the 14-percent work force cut that was announced in 1998.
	 Efficient Networks named Bob Hawk a member of the company's board of
directors. Hawk is the president of Hawk Communications, a
telecommunications consultancy. He recently retired as president and CEO of
US West Multimedia Communications. Hawk also serves on the boards of
companies such as Covad Communications and PairGain Technologies.
	 Loral named Dr. John Klineberg as president of its Space Systems/Loral
(SSL) subsidiary. The appointment was part of the company's management and
organizational changes, effective immediately. Klineberg was responsible for
the Globalstar satellite constellation in which Loral has a 45 percent
stake. Robert E. Berry was appointed chairman of SS/L and will continue his
role as senior vice president of space technology.
	 Motorola revealed its PowerPC Microprocessor Strategy Roadmap, a complete
layout of the company's plan to apply its PowerPC architecture to a variety
of markets, including networking, telecommunications, computing, and
transportation. The plans detailed information on future direction of
development of microprocessors, integrated devices, innovative design
methodologies and manufacturing processes as well as an aggressive strategy
for rapid reuse of these technologies.
	 NEC plans to liquidate NEC Home Electronics, a debt-ridden unit that
manufactures lighting equipment, computer monitors, and projectors. The
company also will consolidate its wireless communications equipment
operations, which were involved in a Japanese Defense Agency procurement
scandal.
	 Nokia decided to merge its wholly owned subsidiary, Nokiterra Oy, into
Nokia Corporation as of August 25, 1999. The shift gave Nokia a total of
64,280,684 Nokia shares, corresponding to approximately 5.3 percent of the
total share capital, and voting rights in Nokia. The company's key figures
were not affected, because these shares have already been eliminated in the
Group's profit and loss accounts and other statements. The merger enables
Nokia to cancel these shares by a shareholders' resolution.
	 Security Dynamics renamed itself RSA Security, further integrating itself
with its RSA Data Security unit. The company felt that the RSA name is more
familiar to customers, because of the association with the patented RSA
public key technology used to secure Internet interactions. The first
product line to be released by the renamed company will be the Keon family.
Keon will combine PKI with Security Dynamics' SecurID technology, and, thus,
provide both encryption and authentication in one service.

Regulatory News 
	 Poland will begin issuing licenses for domestic long distance, fixed-line
services by the end of September. Minimum bids for licenses are set at 23
million euros ($23.8 million). This move is the latest step in the country's
plan to open the telephone market and bring it up to speed with membership
conditions for the European Union.
	 The Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce passed a $2 million
operating budget during its second public meeting. So far, the commission
has operated using some $500,000 in funding from the state of Virginia and
from the corporations represented on it.
	 The FCC postponed the vote on changes to its cable television ownership
rules after an intense lobbying campaign by AT&T. AT&T's $58 million
acquisition of MediaOne could face complications if the rules are not
changed. The deal would give AT&T 42 percent ownership of the country's
cable market. The FCC's proposed plan limits the ownership of cable systems
by one company to 30 percent of the national audience, including satellite
subscribers. The ownership rules were declared unconstitutional six years
ago and the case will be heard in an appeals court in December. The FCC is
expected to meet on October 8 to vote on the reform.
	 Under a revised competition order, the FCC listed telephone network
components that RBOCs, such as Bell Atlantic, and GTE must make available
for lease at a discount. They are loops, subloops, network interface
devices, circuit switching, interoffice transmission facilities, signaling
and call-related databases, and operations support systems. Not included in
the list are operator services and directory assistance as well as packet or
data switching.
	 In an effort to promote cellular carriers' new Internet and data services,
the FCC is considering a staff proposal to relax the limits on ownership of
wireless telephone licenses. The issue in question is whether the FCC should
relax the limits stating that a company may not own more than one of the
five high capacity wireless licenses in each market. The FCC will consider
the issue as early as its September 15 meeting.
	 Lockheed Martin won the authorized carrier status needed from the FCC to
buy a 49 percent stake in COMSAT in a 4-0 vote. Lockheed can proceed with
the first part of the acquisition and purchase 49 percent of COMSAT stock
for $45.50 a share in cash. The second stage of the purchase, a one-for-one
stock swap, will commence once the deal is approved by the US Justice
Department and Congress amends the 1962 Communications Satellite Act barring
a takeover. The FCC also stripped COMSAT of its exclusive right to sell US
access to the multination INTELSAT service and instituted a 5.58 percent
surcharge fee telecommunications firms will pay to COMSAT. The FCC plan will
allow direct US access to INTELSAT, however, access will be limited to
foreign carriers that are part of the INTELSAT system.
	 The Vermont Public Service Board gave its nod for the Bell Atlantic and
	 GTE merger. So far, the companies have collected 31 approvals from the 39
states that have jurisdiction over the merger. FCC approval also is needed.
The following states still need to approve the deal: California, Hawaii,
Illinois, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington.



Network Switching 
	 Cabletron reported that The Tolly Group and Network World validated
interoperability between Cabletron's SmartSwitch 6000, SSR 8600, and
switches from Nortel, Lucent, Foundry Networks, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and
Cisco. Test results are available at.

Network/Systems Management 
	 Cisco Systems reported the extension of its CiscoWorks2000 product family
by introducing its new Service Level Management Suite. Cisco is broadening
its partner-based ecosystem to include service management software vendors
by enabling them to enhance their services through a new collaborative
network management interface.
	 enCommerce reported that its getAccess software has received Tested and
Approved Compatibility and Directory-enabled status. This certification
assures Novell customers that getAccess, an Internet-scale management
product for secure e-business portals, has been rigorously tested by an
independent testing laboratory to provide reliability and interoperability
with NDS.
	 Novell added of NetVision's Synchronicity integration tools to its product
line. This product integrates NDS with tools that manage user accounts
spanning Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, Windows NT and NetWare
environments. Novell will deliver Synchronicity for Notes, Exchange, NT, and
NetWare through its wide distribution channels.

Voice Processing 
	 Lucent Technologies launched its Stinger, a high-speed, dial-up Internet
product that allows ISPs and phone companies to offer DSL service without
interfering with the quality of voice. The service relays information up to
30 times faster and has the ability to split the line for a carrying
capacity of up to 16 different lines using one connection. The Stinger is
designed to prevent drop-outs or disruptions in voice calls. The charge per
month will run between $30 and $40.

Year 2000 
	 The Office of Management and Budget reported that the US government
completed 97 percent of its Y2K fixes on its main computer systems. The
total cost of the completed work was $8.34 billion. Nine of the 24 cabinet
departments and key agencies, the departments of Agriculture, Commerce
Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Justice, Treasury,
Transportation and the Agency for International Development, are not
finished with their Y2K work yet, reports said.

	 Kathy Woodbury
=============================================
COMPANY WEB SITES

@Motion	http://www.@motion-inc.com/
3Com	http://www.3com.com/
AboveNet	http://www.abovenet.com/
Adtran	http://www.adtran.com/
Advanced Radio Telecom	http://www.artelecom.com/
Aironet	http://www.aironet.com/
Alantro	http://www.alantro.com/
ALLTEL	http://www.alltel.com/
America Online	http://www.aol.com/
American Tower	http://www.americantower.com/
AT&T	http://www.att.com/
AT&T Canada	http://www.attcanada.ca/
Banyan Worldwide	http://www.banyan.com/
Bell Atlantic	http://www.bellatlantic.com/
BT	http://www.bt.com/
Cable & Wireless HKT	http://www.c-w-hkt.net/
Cabletron	http://www.cabletron.com/
CBSd Corporation	http://www.cbs.com/
CheckFree	http://www.checkfree.com/
China Telecom	http://www.chinatelecom.com/
Cisco Systems	http://www.cisco.com/
Cocom	http://www.cocom.dk/
Compaq	http://www.compaq.com/
COMSAT	http://www.comsat.com/
Data General	http://www.dg.com/
Deutsche Telekom	http://www.dtag.de/
Die Welt	http://www.welt.de/
Efficient Networks	http://www.efficient.com/
Embedded Planet	http://www.embeddedplanet.com/
enCommerce	http://www.encommerce.com/
Equant	http://www.equant.com/
eTranslate	http://www.etranslate.com/
FCC	http://www.fcc.gov/
Foundry Networks	http://www.foundrynet.com/
France Telecom	http://www.francetelecom.fr/
GE Capital	http://www.ge.com/capital/
General Instrument	http://www.gi.com/
Global Crossing	http://www.globalcrossing.com/
Global One	http://www.globalone.com/
GTE	http://www.gte.com/
Hewlett-Packard	http://www.hp.com/
Hybrid Networks	http://www.hybrid.com/
IBM	http://www.ibm.com/
IMPSAT	http://www.impsat.com/
Infineon Technologies	http://www.infineon.com/
INTELSAT	http://www.intelsat.com/
Intersil~bd, 	http://www.lucent.com/
Latitude Communications	http://www.latitude.com/
Lockheed Martin	http://www.lockheedmartin.com/
Loral	http://www.loral.com/
Lotus Development	http://www.lotus.com/
Lucent Technologies	http://www.lucent.com/
Lycos	http://www.lycos.com/
Mannesmann	http://www.mannesmann.com/
MediaOne	http://www.mediaone.com/
Medscape	http://www.medscape.com/
Metromedia Fiber Network	http://www.mmfn.com/
Microsoft	http://www.microsoft.com/
Motorola	http://www.motorola.com/
MSN LinkExchange	http://linkexchange.etranslate.com/
NEC	http://www.nec.com/
NetVision	http://www.netvision.com/
Network Associates	http://www.nai.com/
Nokia	http://www.nokia.com/
Nortel	http://www.nortel.com/
Novell	http://www.novell.com/
Pac-West Telecomm	http://www.pacwest.com/
Phone.com	http://www.phone.com/
Phonetic Systems	http://www.phoneticsystems.com/
Picus Communications	http://www.picus.com/
PRIMUS Telecommunications Group	http://www.primus.com/
Prodigy	http://www.prodigy.com/
Proxim	http://www.proxim.com/
PSINet	http://www.psi.net/
QNX	http://www.qnx.com/
Qwest Communications	http://www.qwest.com/
RSA Security	http://www.rsasecurity.com/
SAP America	http://wwwext03.sap.com/
Securities and Exchange Commission	http://www.sec.gov/
Sharewave	http://www.sharewave.com/
SingTel	http://www.singtel.com/
SmartAge	http://www.smartage.com/
Softbank	http://www.softbank.com/
Sprint	http://www.sprint.com/
Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux	http://www.suez-lyonnaise-eaux.ft/
Switchboard	http://www.switchboard.com/
Symantec	http://www.symantec.com/
The Tolly Group	http://www.tolly.com/
Toshiba	http://www.toshiba.com/
Trend Micro	http://www.antivirus.com/
Unisys	http://www.unisys.com/
United Utilities	http://www.unitedutilities.com/
US WEST	http://www.uswest.com/
Viacom	http://www.viacom.com/
Vodafone AirTouch	http://www.vodafone-airtouch-plc.com/
Wayport	http://www.wayport.net/
Yahoo!	http://www.yahoo.com/
Zoom	http://www.zoomtel.com/

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