Arrowpoint(ARPT Quote) was lately jumping 53, or 155.7%, to 87 after Goldman Sachs priced its 5 million-share IPO at $34 a share. ArrowPoint recently raised its initial $15-$17 projected share price to $30-$32. The company makes switches that route Web content requests to network servers.
Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures
The Federal Communications Commission gave its final OK to the merger of Bell Atlantic (BEL Quote) and Vodafone AirTouch's (VOD Quote) wireless businesses. According to the FCC, the joint venture will operate under Bell Atlantic's Cellco unit. Bell Atlantic added 3/4 to 62 and Vodafone Airtouch declined 1/16 to 55. Separately, the FCC also gave the thumbs up to the VoiceStream Wireless (VSTR Quote) acquisition of Aerial Communications (AERL Quote). VoiceStream has already closed its purchase of Omnipoint (OMPT Quote) and said the three merged companies would provide service to more than 200 million customers. VoiceStream Wireless slid 6 1/2, or 5%, to 121 7/8 and Aerial Communications stumbled 2 1/8 to 55 1/8.
An AT&T (T Quote)-led consortium said it's acquiring a 39% voting stake in Net2Phone (NTOP Quote), which provides telephone service over the Internet. Under terms of the deal, the consortium will purchase 4 million newly issued Class-A shares from Net2Phone at $75 a share, or $300 million. The consortium will also purchase 14.9 million shares from IDT (IDTC Quote), Net2Phone's controlling shareholder, for $75 a share, or $1.1 billion. British Telecom (BTY Quote) said that it was in talks with AT&T regarding the interest in Net2Phone. AT&T skidded 7/16 to 57 3/8 and Net2Phone jumped 5 1/2, or 9.9%, to 60 7/8, while British Telecom gained 3/4 to 188 1/2. Conseco(CNC Quote) slipped 2 5/8, or 19.1%, to 11 1/8 after it said that it is considering the sale of its Conseco Finance division and would assume a noncash post-tax charge of roughly $350 million in 1999. The insurance company attributed the charge to writing off the carrying interest-only securities at the division. Conseco said the charge would dent its initial 1999 earnings report. Chairman and CEO Stephen Hilbert said that the company failed to produce the level of shareholder value that it should from its purchase of Conseco Finance. Hartford Financial Services(HIG Quote) launched a $1.1 billion bid to buy the 18.5% interest in Hartford Life (HLI Quote) that it doesn't already own. The deal values the Hartford Life stake at $44 per share, a price that is slightly below Hartford's Life closing price of 45 1/16 on Thursday. Hartford Financial jumped 3 5/8, or 7.8%, to 50 and Hartford Life bounced 7/8 to 45 15/16. Hutchinson Technology's(HTCH Quote) fiscal 2000 loss estimates was upped to $1.70 from 70 cents at Goldman. Hutchinson Technology declined 1 7/8, or 10.2%, to 16 7/16. Dutch supermarket chain Koninklijke Ahold (AHO Quote) said its U.S.-based Tops Markets division acquired the Sugar Creek convenience stores. According to Ahold, Sugar Creek reports annual sales of about $142 million. Ahold edged up 9/16 to 26 1/4. Wesley Jessen VisionCare (WJCO Quote) advanced 3/16 to 36 7/16 after it said it turned down Bausch & Lomb's (BOL Quote) $34-a-share bid for the company, citing its dedication to its proposed $562 million stock deal with Ocular Sciences (OCLR Quote). Wesley Jessen said Bausch & Lomb's offer doesn't top Ocular's bid which, according to Wesley, would create about $30 million in cost savings. Bausch & Lomb bounced 3, or 6.1%, to 52 and Ocular Sciences declined 11/16 to 15 3/4. Earnings/revenue reports and previews
(Earnings estimates from First Call/Thomson Financial; earnings reported on a diluted basis unless otherwise specified.) New Era of Networks (NEON Quote) gained 1 1/16 to 40 1/16 after it said it sees earnings for the first quarter "to be somewhat better than expectations" and revenue of between $40 million and $41 million. The software company plans to release earnings on April 20. The six-analyst estimate calls for the company to earn 2 cents a share in the quarter.
Interstate Bakeries (IBC Quote) lost 2 5/8, or 15.9%, to 13 15/16 after it reported third-quarter earnings of 30 cents, lower than the nine-analyst estimate of 37 cents and the year-ago 41 cents. Summit Technology (BEAM Quote) inched up 1/16 to 9 3/16 after it said it would assume a first-quarter pretax restructuring charge of $3 million and would take on another $8 million charge for ending its pact with Ciba Vision. Xerox (XRX Quote) added 3/16 to 26 3/4 after it said it is cutting 5,200 jobs and expects to take a $625 million pretax charge in the first quarter. The copier-maker said the restructuring will put earnings growth in the mid-to-high teens in 2001. Offerings and stock actions
Global Crossing (GBLX Quote) lost 4 1/16, or 9.4%, to 39 1/4 after it said it plans to sell $1.25 billion of common stock and $750 million of cumulative convertible preferred stock and it also said that current shareholders plan to sell $1.25 billion of common stock in connection with the planned offering. The company, a long-distance provider building a global fiber optic network, expects to complete the offerings in April. The price totals are based on Global Crossing's price of 43 5/16 from yesterday's close. Analyst actions
Infonet(IN Quote): price target UP to 41 from 37 at Lehman Brothers. After yesterday's close, Infonet Services and Deutsche Telekom (DT Quote) agreed to a five-year deal that calls for Infonet's global network services to be sold under the Deutsche Telekom brand name. According to the companies, the deal would mean a $1 billion increase in revenue for Infonet. Deutsche Telekom rose 1 7/8 to 79 7/8, while Infonet Services advanced 1 13/16, or 8.1%, to 24 3/16.
Avenue A (AVEA Quote): NEW rating of strong buy at Thomas Weisel from analyst H. Perry Boyle Jr. Avenue A climbed 2 3/16, or 7.5%, to 31 7/16. Bear Stearns upped its price targets on the following brokers: Lehman Brothers (LEH Quote) to 130 from 100; Charles Schwab(SCH Quote) to 80 from 65 and PaineWebber Group(PWJ Quote) to 60 from 50. Lehman Brothers slumped 4 1/4 to 95 3/4; Charles Schwab declined 3 9/16, or 6%, to 55 7/16. Inco(N Quote): NEW outperform; price target of 24 at Salomon Smith Barney . Inco was up 1/8 to 18 3/4. Checkpoint (CKP Quote): UP to U.S. recommended for purchase list from market outperform at Goldman. Checkpoint stayed flat at 9 1/8. Prudential Securities downgraded several B2B stocks. The firm downgraded Commerce One (CMRC Quote) to accumulate from strong buy and lowered its price target to 200 from 250; downgraded Ariba (ARBA Quote) to accumulate from strong buy; and downgraded i2 Technologies (ITWO Quote) to accumulate from strong buy and cut its price target to 150 from 200. Commerce One fell 29 3/8, or 17%, to 143 7/8; Ariba fell 31, or 14.1%, to 189 and i2 Technologies lost 27, or 20.1%, to 102. Emerson Electric (EMR Quote): NEW buy; price target of 70 to 75 at Credit Suisse First Boston. Emerson Electric climbed 1 1/16 to 54 4/16. J.P. Morgan cut its weightings in European technology, media, telecom and electronic stocks to neutral from overweight and sliced its exposure to the software sector to underweight from neutral. The firms sees the continental European market finishing the year roughly 10% below current levels. Infosys Technologies (INFY Quote): NEW market neutral at W.R. Hambrecht. Infosys dropped 35 3/4, or 16%, to 187 1/4. IMS Health(RX Quote): DOWN to neutral from buy at SG Cowen. IMS Health climbed 3/8 to 16 3/4. NetB@nk (NTBK Quote): NEW buy at W.R. Hambrecht; 12-month price target of 20. NetB@nk lifted 11/16, or 5.6%, to 12 15/16. Nextel Partners (NXTP Quote): NEW buy; price target of 40 at Goldman. Nextel lost 1/8 to 31 3/4. PanAmSat(SPOT Quote): UP to strong buy from buy; set price target at 79 at ING Barings. PanAmSat gained 6 5/16, or 15.1%, to 48. Qualcomm(QCOM Quote): UP to buy from outperform; price target UP to 200 from 150 at Salomon Smith Barney. Qualcomm rose 3 7/8 to 149 3/32. Miscellany
eBay (EBAY Quote), according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, disclosed that its bricks-and-mortar auction unit, Butterfield & Butterfield, received a grand jury subpoena from the Justice Department's antitrust division. The subpoena "request(s) documents relating to, among other things, changes in B&B's seller's commissions and buyer's premiums and discussions, agreements or understandings with other auction houses, in each case since 1992." eBay said it thinks the request may be related to the reported government probe of auction houses for price fixing. eBay plummeted 22 1/2, or 10.8%, to 184 1/2.
Philips Electronics (PHG Quote) skidded 3 1/4 to 169 1/2 after it said it is selling its 24% stake in ASM Lithogrpahy (ASML Quote), a Dutch semiconductor equipment maker. ASM stumbled 3 3/16 t 107 1/8. The Heard on the Street column in The Wall Street Journal said there might be trouble ahead for some of the stocks that hedge fund legend Julian Robertson's Tiger Management owns, but that can't be sold out of his funds yet. Robertson said yesterday that Tiger's hedge funds will be shut down. The Journal pointed out that Robertson, via Tiger, will still hold four U.S. stocks in which it has huge holdings and a sizable portion of the companies' outstanding shares: US Airways (U Quote), United Asset Management (UAM Quote), Xtra (XTR Quote) and Gtech (GTK Quote). US Airways popped 2 7/16, or 9.9%, to 27 and United Asset Management climbed 9/16 to 17, while Xtra added 1/16 to 38 9/16. Gtech shed 1/4 to 18 15/16. TheStreet.com columnist Holly Hegeman took a look at the US Airways situation in a column last night. The Inside Wall Street column in Business Week, written by Gene Marcial, tees up a positive profile of disk-drive maker Western Digital (WDC Quote), which used to be a highflier but fell out of favor when the disk-drive business went into a downdraft a couple years ago. The item cites Dane Lewis, an analyst at Robertson Stephens, as saying Western has an unappreciated gem in its network storage operation, which Lewis estimates is worth $500 million to $1 billion. Western Digital slipped 1/16 to 6 13/16. The column also offers up bullish items on Tyco (TYC Quote) and Leap Wireless International (LWIN Quote). The column quoted Brian Zimmerman, a money manager at Forstmann-Leff Associates, which has been accumulating shares of Leap, as saying that "Leap is the most inexpensive wireless company around." Tyco advanced 5/8 to 50 1/2.
