🚀 go-pugleaf

---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Wednesday, February 23, 2000, 11:29 AM -0500
From: Faulkner Mail Server <mailserver@faulknerinfo.com>
To: ???
Subject: Faulkner Com Flash 02/22/2000 - (Part 2 of 3)

Financial News (Cont'd)

         Sonera announced that it will propose a plan to shareholders to
issue up to 25 million new shares. Also, it is seeking to buy back 14.44
million shares and issue bonds with warrants for up to 20 million shares to
employees.
	 Also, Sonera reported that total sales for 1999 increased 28 percent over
results from 1998 to 3.7 billion euros. Of these, revenues from mobile sales
increased 14 percent to 1.8 billion euros; revenues from the fixed network
increased 21 percent to 966 million euros, media revenues rose 21 percent to
140 million euros, and other revenues grew 16 percent to 173 million euros.
Earnings per share were 0.51 euros, compared to 0.35 euros.
	 Sweden announced plans to list Telia on the stock exchange in the spring.
The government originally planned to list the company in the fall, but it
now wants to get Telia on the exchange as quickly as possible. The deal is
still pending parliamentary approval.
	 Telefonos de Mexico (TelMex) announced that it will double its capital
spending for 2000 to $2.9 billion in an attempt to upgrade its network. The
majority of this investment, $1.5 billion, will go toward its wireless
business. This figure does not include the money Telmex has earmarked for
acquisitions, which will make up a substantial part of the company's growth
strategy. The company plans to focus on acquisitions that will expand its
presence in the wireless and Internet markets. Last year, the company spend
$1.43 billion on capital spending, and $670 million on acquisitions.
	 In addition, Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) reported that revenues for the
fourth quarter increased 20.2 percent over results from the same quarter in
1998 to 26.3 billion pesos. Revenues from wireless operations were the
driving factor behind this increase. The company added 1.124 million cell
phone subscribers in the fourth quarter, bringing its overall subscription
base to 5.272 million. Net income was 8 billion pesos, compared to 5.3
billion pesos.
	 For the fourth quarter, Williams Communications' revenues were $523
million, up from $509 million for the same quarter in 1998. Net loss was $74
million, compared to $79 million, or a per-share loss of $0.17. For the
fiscal year ended December 31, 1999, revenues topped $2 billion for the
first time. Revenues for the 1998 fiscal year were $1.7 billion. Net loss
was $360 million, or a per-share loss of $0.78, for the year, compared to
$186 million, or a loss of $0.40 per share.

Internetworking 
	 3Com Corporation introduced two members into its server NIC family. The
EtherLink Server 10/100 PCI NIC (3C980C-TXM) is designed for availability,
manageability, and performance. 3Com also introduced the EtherLink Server
10/100 PCI NIC with 3XP processor (3CR990SVR), targeting server applications
that require high- performance as well as security, such as e-commerce,
banking, healthcare, and the government.
	 ADC introduced a CSU device that helps businesses consolidate multiple
voice, video, and data traffic onto a single T1 circuit. The CrossPATH II AC
provides three T1 ports plus a data port in a single compact rack unit,
minimizing space requirements in equipment closets.

Internet/Intranet 
	 AOL Europe challenged Deutsche Telekom to lower its Internet access rates.
AOL said DT could boost Germany's economy by 0.5 percent, which amounts to
19 billion marks, if it would lower its rates by 20 to 50 percent. DT
currently charges Internet users on a per-minute basis. The report said that
while all of Germany needs to lower its access rates, DT holds enough
leverage through T-Online to make the rest of the market follow suit if it
were to take the first step.
	 Fujitsu Business Communication Systems signed a three-year original
equipment manufacturer agreement with NetSpeak, whereby Fujitsu will offer
NetSpeak's iTEL product line in conjunction with its CLASS+ IP and VPN+ IP
Internet Protocol (IP)-based telephony offerings. The deal is designed to
afford optimized IP telephony call management for enterprises and Internet
telephony service providers.
	 Hewlett-Packard and Portal Software agreed to develop, market, and sell a
real-time, usage-based billing offering for mobile Internet services, based
on HP's Smart Internet Usage product and Portal's Infranet software. Aimed
at mobile service providers, the deal is designed to extend HP's existing
mobile E-services program to include billing services.
	 Hewlett-Packard and Alcatel formed a strategic marketing agreement to
provide next-generation Net-based services for users of mobile and other
devices. HP agreed to market and distribute Alcatel's HomeTop software suite
in a version designed to run on the HP-UX1 WAP-enabled platform. The deal is
intended to allow corporate customers, telecom operators, and service
providers to deploy Internet-based services offerings, including e-commerce
applications and unified messaging.
	 NTT announced that it will lower its Internet access charges by 50 percent
by May. Currently, customers are charged 8000 yen ($73) per month for
unlimited dial-up Internet access from NTT. They will now be charged 4000
yen ($36.50) per month. ISDN services will be charged 6000 yen per month
instead of 7000 yen. A number of start-up companies are stripping away some
of NTT's customers, thus the reason behind the rate reduction.
	 SBC Communications and Telefonos de Mexico are investing $150 million in
Internet access provider Network Access Solutions. Under terms of the
agreement, SBC and Telmex will increase their combined ownership position to
about 12 percent and Network Access will provide its services to business
and residential customers of SBC and Telmex. Network Access plans to expand
into areas served by Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, and US WEST. The deal is the
first initiative to satisfy conditions set on SBC's merger with Ameritech.
To gain federal approval of the merger, SBC promised to introduce local
phone and Internet services in 30 new markets served by other Baby Bells.

Legal News 
	 New Networks Institute filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) against Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Bell, SBC
Communications, and US WEST, alleging that the Bell companies took $21
billion dollars of improper tax write-offs between 1993 and 1995. The
deductions were based on Bell company claims that they were replacing the
existing copper network with fiber-optic technology. Some fiber-optic
technology has been installed, however, over 70 percent of the wiring is not
connected or is not being used. If the networks were deducted prematurely,
then these write-offs were not allowable and all monies, including
penalties, should be recovered. If these deductions occurred, then the costs
of the networks to all customers should have been reduced because the
network prices are based on the actual value of the technology. NNI's
complaint contends that every residential customer may have been overcharged
by about $250 because the customers paid for retail services that were based
on written-off networks. The IRS filed a similar informal complaint against
the companies in May 1998.
	 BellSouth Telecommunications was ordered to pay $16 million in reciprocal
compensation to e.spire Communications for the termination of local calls in
Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina. The compensation includes monies for
ISP traffic and attorneys' fees.
	 US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks dismissed six of the seven counts
filed in a lawsuit against Broward County, Florida by Cablevision and
Advocate Communications. The suit challenged the county's requirement that
the companies share their cable TV lines with competitors offering
high-speed Internet access and claimed that the open access rule impaired
contracts, usurped federal powers, and violated due process. Middlebrooks
ruled that the companies lacked legal standing to pursue the claims. Broward
County has until February to dispute the remaining count, which argues that
the open access rule violates cable companies' First Amendment rights to
free speech by limiting availability of their facilities and forcing them to
participate in others' speech.
	 SIRIT Technologies filed a complaint against MCI WorldCom for $100 million
in damages. SIRIT accused MCI WorldCom and a former executive, Frederick
Weidinger, for concealing information and breaching contracts concerning
SIRIT's purchase of MFS Network Technologies, a division of MFS
Communications, which is a subsidiary of MCI WorldCom. SIRIT believes the
company's allegedly fraudulent actions allowed it to enter an agreement to
sell MFSNT to Able Telecom Holding Corporation of Atlanta. The case is
scheduled for trial on April 10, 2000.

Mergers/Acquisitions 
	 AT&T will pay an undisclosed sum to acquire the assets of Wireless One.
AT&T wants to increase its wireless coverage to include Florida. The deal is
expected to close in June and must be approved by regulators.
	 In other news, AT&T will buy all outstanding shares of GRCI stock for $221
million. The company will begin a cash tender for shares on February 24.
Both companies' board of directors approved the deal but government approval
is still pending.
	 BC Partners are in negotiations with Bell SA, Hopa, and Fingruppo about
acquiring a 7.5-percent stake in Bell SA, the primary investor in Olivetti.
Bell owns 20.43 percent of Olivetti.
	 BCE will pay CDN$9.6 billion in stock for the 77 percent in Teleglobe that
it does not already own. BCE currently owns 23 percent of the company
through its Bell Canada subsidiary. BCE is offering Teleglobe shareholders
BCE common shares based on the share price following the upcoming
distribution of its Nortel Networks stake. I f the shares are trading above
CDN$50 before the close of the transaction, Teleglobe shareholders will
receive the equivalent of CDN$48.41 for each Teleglobe common share. If
BCE's stock price is below CDN$50, the exchange ratio will be fixed at 0.97
of a BCE share for every Teleglobe share.
	 BT said it was selling a research facility to Corning for $66 million.
	 Cable & Wireless acquired Racal Datacom, a network integration company
located in The Netherlands. The newly acquired company will be recast as
Cable & Wireless BV.
	 Hutchison Whampoa, Cheung Kong Holdings, and Pacific Century CyberWorks
(PCCW) are involved in a consortium of companies preparing to make a play
for C&W HKT. Vodafone AirTouch is also reportedly interested in joining the
consortium, but the company denied comment. Cable & Wireless said that it
was still in "constructive" talks with SingTel, and said a deal could be
announced within weeks.
	 Charter Communications completed its $3.1 billion acquisition of Bresnan
Communications Company Limited Partnership. The deal adds 690,000 cable
customers to Charter's client base, solidifying its position as the
fourth-largest cable operator in the US based on customers served. The
acquisition is the last of the 12 deals announced in 1999 to be completed.
	 Cisco Systems launched a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held
Growth Networks, a manufacturer of Internet switching fabrics, in an attempt
to expand Cisco's ability to deliver terabit performance next-generation
networking infrastructures to SPs. Cisco common stock worth an aggregate
value of approximately $355 million will be exchanged for all outstanding
shares, warrants, and options of Growth Networks. This acquisition will be
accounted for as a pooling of interests and is expected to close in the
fourth quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2000.
	 Deutsche Telekom is considering holding off on completing the sale of six
of its nine regional cable networks so that it can take advantage of
upcoming tax reforms. DT had expected to complete the sale of the networks
to Callahan Associates, Kletsche, and UPC sometime this year, but the German
government's plan to do away with capital gains taxes on companies that sell
stakes in themselves makes it worth putting the sale off until next year.
The company said it will sell its networks before the new year if any of the
buyers insist, but it reserves the right to raise the price.
	 Also, Deutsche Telekom agreed to acquire a 51-percent majority stake in
Beta Research, the technology unit of Kirch Gruppe, for $502.8 million. DT
and Kirch may eventually float Beta through an IPO.
	 The Internet unit of Deutsche Telekom, T-Online, agreed to buy 99.9
	 percent of French ISP Club Internet from publishing group Lagadere. In
return, Lagadere will receive 6.5 percent of T-Online. Lagadere will
continue to provide content for Club Internet and will manage the portal
for three years. The move positions T-Online, which DT expects to partially
float in April, in the French market and paves the way for future
international expansion.
	 eisa, a second-tier ISP in Australia, is close to placing a A$350-million
bid for OzEmail, the largest consumer ISP in Australia. OzEmail agreed to
merge with Telstra for A$300 million, but the Australian Competition and
Consumer Commission said such a marriage between the two companies would
give Telstra a monopolistic 40-percent market share. With OzEmail's assets,
eisa would hold 20 percent of the market. eisa's plans are leaving analysts
scratching their heads and wondering whether eisa, a company with a market
capitalization of A$65 million, will be able to fund an acquisition. The
company may hook up with Vodafone AirTouch's Australian unit in order to
give it the financial resources it needs.
	 France Telecom said it is considering an aggressive play for Orange, the
	 UK wireless operator that will be either spun off or sold by the merging
Vodafone AirTouch and Mannesmann. Orange is valued at slightly more than $30
billion.
	 Hicks, Muse, Furst, & Tate agreed to invest $250 million in Rhythms
NetConnections. In exchange, the investment firm will receive preferred
stock that can be converted to common stock at any time, giving the company
an eight percent stake in Rhythms. Rhythms said the money will be earmarked
for network expansion within the US. Hicks Muse also received warrants that
will allow it to invest an additional $280 million in Rhythms' common stock
over the next few years.
	 KPN Telecom acquired a 51-percent stake in Euroweb International for $16.3
million. Euroweb is a UK company that owns ISPs in Slovakia, the Czech
Republic, and Hungary.
	 The Microelectronics Group of Lucent Technologies agreed to acquire Ortel
in an all-stock deal valued at about $2.95 billion. The partnership will
help Lucent speed the transition of cable TV network from a one-way
broadcast capability, to a two-way, fully interactive communications medium.
Ortel's 550 employees will remain at their current locations and the
company's CEO, Stephen Rizzone, will report to Lucent's Optoelectronics
President Dan DiLeo. The companies expect the deal to close by June 30,
2000. Nortel Networks is buying Dimension Enterprises in a cash deal valued
	 at up to $64.5 million to expand its Internet reach. The acquisition will
allow Nortel to design and engineer better and more profitable data centers
used in Internet communications and e-commerce.
	 Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) entered into talks with Cable & Wireless
HKT about a possible merger. According to PCCW, the deal would involve both
stock and cash. Pacific Century is the latest company in merger talks with
C&W's Asian unit. Friday, Cable & Wireless said it was still in
"constructive" talks with SingTel, and said a deal could be announced within
weeks. SingTel said it is not ruling out teaming up with PCCW to make a
joint bid on HKT. PCCW is a joint venture between Intel and Pacific Century
Group.
	 PT Multimedia, the multimedia division of Portugal Telecom will acquire
Zip.net, a Brazilian Internet company for $365 million. Zip.net offers Web
hosting and free e-mail accounts.
	 Rogers Communications, the largest cable TV service company in Canada,
agreed to purchase rival Groupe Videotron in a deal valued at $4.2 billion.
Videotron shareholders will receive 0.925 shares of non-voting Class B
shares in Rogers in exchange for each one of their own. The new company will
have annual revenues of $4.4 billion, 260,000 broadband Internet customers,
and 3.7 million cable customers. Ted Rogers, CEO and President of Rogers
Communications, said the recent merger between Time Warner and AOL set the
stage for the acquisition. Rogers said it will help fund the acquisition by
selling off non-core assets, including a minority stake in AT&T Canada.
Pending regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close in the second
quarter of this year.
	 Vodafone AirTouch and Mannesmann must turn their efforts toward figuring
out what to do with Orange, the wireless operator Mannesmann acquired last
year. Regulators will not allow the combined company to retain ownership of
the company. Vodafone said it plans to spin off Orange, but that is not
stopping a number of companies from lining up to make a play for an
acquisition. Royal KPN Telecom, France Telecom, Vivendi, SBC, Telecom Italia
Mobile, and NTT DoCoMo are listed among the interested companies.
	 Sprint completed its acquisition of Nashville Cable Joint Venture for $8
million. With this acquisition and with its purchases of other broadband
companies such as American Telecasting, Sprint can offer wireless broadband
services to 30 million people.
	 Rumors are circulating that Telecom Italia is seeking to merge its highly
successful wireless unit, Telecom Italia Mobile, with T-Mobil, Deutsche
Telekom's mobile business. An Italian newspaper reported that such a merger
could be the first of a string of alliances between the two companies, which
were going to merge before Olivetti swiped Telecom Italia through a hostile
takeover last year. Deutsche Telekom recently consolidated all of its
wireless assets into T-Mobil to give the unit more pull in the marketplace,
but it may require a powerful ally like TIM to stave off the competition it
will face from a combined Mannesmann /Vodafone AirTouch.
	 Telia acquired a 29.5-percent stake in First National Holdings, which owns
a majority stake in Russian telecommunications company Telecominvest, for
700 million SEK.
	 Telmex agreed to purchase a 60-percent stake in Consorcio Ecuatoriano de
Telecomunicaciones (Conecel), the largest wireless operator in Ecuador.
	 Just because Vodafone AirTouch is in the process of consummating the
largest business merger in the history of the world does not mean that its
appetite for acquisition is satisfied. The company's CEO, Chris Gent, said
that his company is negotiating with British Telecommunications about upping
its stake in Airtel, a Spanish mobile carrier, to a controlling one. A
controlling stake in Airtel would help Vodafone with its plans to offer a
one-rate wireless calling plan across all of Europe. Vodafone will have
access to a wireless market the size of the market in the US. But unlike the
US, Vodafone has a market share 50 percent higher than its largest
competitor, Telecom Italia Mobile.
	 Warner Bros. International Television, a unit of Time Warner, bought a 10
percent stake in Canal Satellite Digital, Spain's leading pay-television
platform, in a deal valued at 5.49 billion pesetas ($32.28 million). Under
terms of the deal, Warner Bros. will appoint a director to Canal Satellite
Digital's board.
Faulkner Information Service
Faulkner Mail Server
mailserver@faulknerinfo.com
114 Cooper Center
Pennsauken, N.J. 08109
(856) 662 2070
http://www.faulkner.com



---------- End Forwarded Message ----------



Missy Harvey
Computer Science Librarian
Engineering & Science Library
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA  15213

http://www.library.cmu.edu/usr/missy/

                   .--~~,__
     :-....,-------`~~'._.'
      `-,,,  ,_      ;'~'
       _,-' ,'`-__; '--.
      (_/'~~      ''''(;

"Golden retrievers are the best alarm clock 
 around.  They're gentle as a lamb and they  
 always wake you up with a smile!"