Stocks to Watch: Qwest Says Major Telco Pulls Out of Talks

Qwest Communications (Q Quote) said last night that "a major telecommunications company" pulled out of talks to acquire it and U S West (USW Quote), which are already planning to merge. The major telecom firm mentioned by Qwest has been identified in numerous published reports as Deutsche Telekom (DT Quote). Qwest placed some blame on U S West for the potential acquirer pulling out of the takeover talks.

Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures

CoreComm Limited (COMM Quote), a provider of integrated telephone, Internet and data services to business and residential customers in targeted markets in the U.S., is acquiring ATX Telecommunications Services, a privately held company, for $900 million.

Medarex(MEDX Quote) set a pact with Regeneron(REGN Quote) to create and market drugs based on antibodies.

Phillips Petroleum(P Quote) is expected to talk to the Federal Trade Commission about acquiring some of Arco's crude oil assets in Alaska, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Earnings/revenue reports and previews

Earnings estimates are from First Call/Thomson Financial)

CMGI (CMGI Quote) said it expects the IPO for its AltaVista portal unit in early April due to Securities and Exchange Commission delays. CMGI also said its revenue will increase at a rate of 20% on a quarter-over-quarter basis through 2000.

Crown Central Petroleum (CNP.A Quote) (CNP.B Quote) has received an acquisition offer of $9.20 a share from Apex Oil for all of Crown Central's Class A and Class B common stock. The proposal will expire at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 17, Crown Central said.

Dial(DL Quote) said it expects to post fiscal 2000 earnings 10% to 12% below the year-ago report. Dial is also forecasting first- and second-quarter sales to decline 3% to 5% from 1999.

Littelfuse(LFUS Quote) said it expects to report first-quarter earnings 20% above the seven-analyst estimate of 35 cents a share.

Offerings and stock actions

Metropolitan Life (MET Quote) cut the number of shares in its IPO to 179 million from 255 million and reduced the estimated price range to $13 to $15 a share, from $14 to $19. The new terms were revealed in an amended filing with the SEC.

MetLife now will sell 73 million shares of common stock in a concurrent private placement to Banco Santander Central Hispano (STD Quote) and Credit Suisse Group at the IPO price. The company plans to net about $3.4 billion from the IPO and the private stock sales, based on a $14-per-share initial price. Originally, MetLife had intended to raise as much as $6.5 billion in its public offering.

Quest Software(QSFT Quote) said it priced a 4.2 million share secondary offering at $140 a share. Quest also set a 2-for-1 stock split.

Rambus' (RMBS Quote) board approved a 4-for-1 stock split.

Company	Offering Price	Current Price	% Change
GT Group (GTTL Quote)	$14	xx	xx
HomeGrocer.com (HOMG Quote)	$12	xx	xx
OTG Software (OTGS Quote)	$19	xx	xx

Analyst actions

SG Cowen started coverage of Exodus(EXDS Quote) with a buy rating.

Credit Suisse First Boston rolled out coverage of Lante(LNTE Quote) with a buy rating and a price target of 90.

Credit Suisse initiated coverage of Lightspan(LSPN Quote) with a strong buy and set a price target of 28.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter raised its fiscal 2000 earnings estimates on Royal Dutch(RD Quote) to $3.00 a share from $2.95 and its fiscal 2001 estimates to $3.10 a share from $3.05.

Warburg Dillon Read initiated coverage of Time Warner(TWX Quote) and Disney(DIS Quote) with buy ratings.

Warburg Dillon Read rolled out coverage of Viacom(VIA Quote) with a strong buy rating and a price target of 75.

Miscellany

CNET Networks (CNET Quote) said Vice Chairman Shelby Bonnie has been named CEO, while Halsey Minor, CNET's founder and current CEO will continue as chairman.

Microsoft (MSFT Quote) introduced a dedicated video game console, code-named X-Box.

The Inside Wall Street column in Business Week this week penned as usual by Gene Marcial, shines a positive light on American Home Products (AHP Quote). Robert Lyon, president and chief investment officer of Institutional Capital in Chicago, thinks Novartis, the Swiss drug giant, will try to acquire AHP before long, the column reported.

Also garnering positive mention is Concord Camera (LENS Quote). The column, citing an unnamed investor close to the company's management, said that Concord, in conjunction with a big overseas cell-phone maker, has developed a phone capable of taking pictures that can be transmitted to the Net via cellular airwaves.

Meanwhile, Israel's ForSoft (FORS Quote) receives positive mention in the column.