The Night Watch: Pacific Aerospace & Electronics Electrified in After-Hours

Extra! Extra! Pacific Aerospace & Electronics (PCTH Quote) Produces World's Smallest Discoidal Capacitor!

Granted, it doesn't seem like an adrenaline pumper at first glance. At best, it might be a nice challenge for the Guinness Book people. First impressions lie. As a result of this announcement, the company traded up 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 on 2.3 million shares on Island ECN.

Someone's adrenal gland throbbed out there.

Around 3 p.m., the Washington-based high-tech electronics maker announced that it developed the world's smallest discoidal capacitor. These tiny devices are used to filter out electrical interference noise from sensitive electronic circuits. They're used in everything from commercial satellites to implanted medical devices.

The company singled out this last category in its press release, due to the small size of the discoidal capacitors, which are only .03 inches thick -- smaller than the tip of a ballpoint pen.

The stock rose 11/16, or 55%, to 1 31/32 during the day session on 2.4 million shares, with the majority of that action happening in the last hour after the release.

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Metrocall (MCLL Quote) edged up 45/64 to 7 on 780,000 shares on Island after announcing it had more Sugar Daddies than the bottom of trick-or-treater's bag.

The company, which provides wireless messaging services, announced before today's opening bell that AT&T (T Quote) would become its biggest shareholder, while three other companies invested $51 million in the company.

As a result, Metrocall rose 4 5/16, or 215.6%, to 6 5/16 on 56.3 million shares making it the most actively traded Nasdaq-issue during today's day session.

AT&T Wireless Services, an AT&T unit, will become Metrocall's biggest shareholder, with 19.9% of the common stock. Per the terms of the deal, AT&T agreed to swap $105 million in Metrocall Series-C preferred stock, which lack voting rights, for 13.3 million common shares, which have voting rights. Essentially, AT&T converted shares of its stock, furthering its ongoing relationship with Metrocall.

Metrocall also announced a separate deal with AT&T Wireless, purchasing NationPage from the AT&T unit for $13 million in cash.

Metrocall vice president Paul Liberty said the NationPage acquisition was separate from AT&T's decision to convert stock. Back in October 1998, Metrocall purchased AT&T unit Advanced Messaging Division. According to Liberty, as part of the deal, the company received "first right of refusal," which means it has the first chance to buy any paging companies that AT&T decides to sell. AT&T decided to sell NationPage and Liberty said Metrocall exercised its first right of refusal.

"If AT&T is going to sell it," he said. "Then we get the first right to pick it up."

The two companies remain close allies, according to Liberty, and will continue to cross promote products.

"AT&T and Metrocall have a very strong partnership," he said. "They sell Metrocall branded stuff in their stores and we sell their Digital One Rate plan."

In addition to the AT&T deal, Metrocall also said PSINet; investment firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst and a "mystery partner" each bought 7.8 million common shares, which each amounts to 9.9% of the company. Each investor will pay $2.19 a share for the stake, or a total of $17 million.

Mystery partner?

Evidently. In a press release from earlier today, the unnamed investor was described as "a third party who is a significant strategic technology company."

Who was it? Liberty wasn't at, uh, liberty to reveal the third investor. Not now anyway.

"We will be announcing that in the near future," he said.

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With small-caps firmly entrenched in the top half of Island's most active chart, tech stocks clung to the bottom half. Here's a quick roundup of how those fared:

The air seeped from Amazon.com's (AMZN Quote) big day. It eased 3/16 to 83 13/16 on 80,000 shares after gaining 21% during the day.

The night does not belong to Michelob. It belongs to Internet plays. Yahoo! (YHOO Quote) rose 2 7/16 to 362 15/16 on 72,000 shares. Online grocer Webvan (WBVN Quote) delivered the goods, gaining 1 1/2 to 16 1/2 on 64,000 shares. Cnet (CNET Quote) fell 1/16 to 52 on 56,000 shares.

B2B play Internet Capital (ICGE Quote) rose 3 3/8 to 133 on 56,000 shares while Oracle (ORCL Quote) rose 1/4 to 57 on 38,000 shares.

Super Q continued to fly. Qualcomm (QCOM Quote) rose 21/64 to 139 1/2 on 86,000 shares.

Cisco (CSCO Quote) rose 3/8 to 118 1/8 on 34,000 shares.

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10 most active stocks on Island ECN (8 p.m. EST)
Company	Price	Change	Session Volume
Pacific Aerospace & Electronics (PCTH Quote)	3 1/2	+1 1/2	2,390,480
Conolog (CNLG Quote)	2 1/8	+3/8	1,179,776
Metrocall (MCLL Quote)	7	+45/64	783,978
Hawks Industries (HAWK Quote)	1 11/16	n/a	448,668
PharmaPrint (PPRT Quote)	2 3/16	+3/32	311,332
Somnus Medical Technologies (SOMN Quote)	2 3/8	-1/8	169,866
Finet.com (FNCM Quote)	1 9/16	-3/32	145,804
Conolog Warrants (CNLGW Quote)	15/32	+3/16	126,160
Paging Network (PAGE Quote)	1 23/32	+3/32	110,426
Qualcomm (QCOM Quote)	139 1/2	+21/64	87,088

Island ECN, owned by Datek Online, offers trading, mainly in Nasdaq-listed stocks, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST..

10 most active stocks on MarketXT (8 p.m. EST)
Company	Price	Change	Session Volume
Oracle (ORCL Quote)	57 5/16	+5/8	2750
Lucent (LU Quote)	56 7/16	-1/8	2600
Qualcomm (QCOM Quote)	140 1/4	+1 1/16	1330
Phone.com (PHCM Quote)	125	+4	1000
CNet (CNET Quote)	51	-1	1000
Eli Lilly (LLY Quote)	65 1/4	+1/8	1000
Amazon.com (AMZN Quote)	84	-3/16	950
Novell (NOVL Quote)	35 5/16	-1 1/16	800
LM Ericsson (ERICY Quote)	85 1/2	+1/16	800
IBM (IBM Quote)	117 1/8	-1/4	600

MarketXT, formerly Eclipse Trading, offers after-hours trading to retail clients of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's (MWD Quote) Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Online, Mellon Bank's (MEL Quote) Dreyfus Brokerage Services and clients of Salomon Smith Barney. Clients can trade 200 of the most actively traded New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market issues, 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. EST Monday through Thursday.

Confused? TheStreet.com explains how the rules change when the sun goes down in Investing Basics: Night Owl, a section devoted to after-hours trading.