NEW YORK, NY, (NAMC) - Its Monday March 6, 2006, and the big news this morning is in the telecommunications industry. This past weekend telecommunications giant AT&T (NYSE: T) has made strides to expand their reach and regain their dominance in the telecommunications industry.
AT&T has agreed to purchase BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) for over $67 billion in an effort to fully acquire Cingular Wireless, which they own a portion of currently.
On the heels of launching the biggest advertising blitz in the history of AT&T they are continuing to follow through with an acquisition that would give them tremendous presence in the southeastern United States.
As part of the deal BellSouth will receive 1.325 shares of AT&T common stock for each common share of BellSouth. Based on AT&T's closing stock price on March 3, that equals $37.09 per BellSouth common share, a 17.9-percent premium.
So what is the next step, well Verizon (NYSE: VZ) may start to step up their acquisition and strategic alliance efforts as this new combination of AT&T and BellSouth just tightens the playing field and puts telecommunications in play.
You could expect both Verizon and AT&T to begin looking at international telecommunications companies as well as smaller U.S. based ones.
Well begin to feature some of these potential acquisition candidates this week on Wall Street to Main Street.
Research in Motion and NTP Settle
In a case that would have shut down millions of mobile devices that utilize Research in Motions (NASDAQ: RIMM) popular BlackBerry service has finally been settled.
Late Friday both Research in Motion (RIM) and NTP agreed to a resolution that will end the patent litigation that is currently pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
RIM has agreed to pay NTP over $612 million and NTP has agreed to grant RIM a license that would keep BlackBerry service alive and well.
This is good news for BlackBerry users this morning that were looking to ditch the BlackBerry for the Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) Treo.
Now the fallout will be with Palm as investors were looking at the BlackBerry shutdown as a big opening for Palm to capture additional market share. This puts a wrinkle in that possibility, but do not rule out a potential acquisition for Palm, or of Palm, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is in the process of preparing to launch their own mobile units and operating system, so it may make sense for them to acquire an existing business as opposed to trying to build it themselves.
Expect Research in Motion to trade higher in this trading session and you may see Palm slip a little bit as investors that were involved in the stock for the blackberry news will probably be getting out.
Alanco Technologies Slips
The prison technology company Alanco Technologies (NASDAQ: ALAN) slips into the 40 cents range and comes dangerously close to their 52 week low.
Bare in mind that the company is currently not in compliance with Nasdaq trading requirements, the stock needs to trade above $1 a share for 10 consecutive trading days and they are far away from that number.
Possible scenarios may be a reverse stock split, that would put the company back in compliance with the Nasdaq but it is damaging to the shareholders as it presents a shorting opportunity to traders. This is often the last resort.
One thing that could be a big help would be for the CEO Bob Kaufmann to create a strategic plan for increasing shareholder value. Though we like the company, we have to look at what they are doing to accomplish this.
This is a company that is not only overlook but its underexposed, some argue that they are in beta mode, while others doubt the viability of the company. We have been covering Alanco for a few months and have received several emails from investors and the investment community giving their take on the situation.
Our take is this, Alanco Technologies is in an industry that is in need of their technology, at this point they are the only ones that offer this, but that could be changed quickly if they do not position themselves as the leader in the industry. Nothing prevents a company like Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) from stepping in and developing a system equivalent if not more expansive than Alancos current system.
Weve spoken to various law enforcement professionals and the general consensus was that a system like the one that Alanco has would only be beneficially in larger prisons and not in local police stations or central booking locations. So the value is there, our question is when are we going to hear more about it in the media, this is a question that Alanco has failed to answer.
Gourmet Coffee Picks Up Steam
With the popularity of gourmet coffee growing at a rapid pace, with Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) putting the spotlight on the industry. Fast food giant McDonalds (NYSE: MCD) has made the move to introduce gourmet coffee to their millions of customers worldwide recently.
You can expect others to follow suit, but this brings us to a little known company that is in the market of providing gourmet coffee in the United States, Canada and Europe from Papua New Guinea.
The company is Coffee Pacifica (OTCBB: CFPC), and though you probably havent heard of them yet you may want to keep a watchful eye on this company as more fast food chains begin to introduce gourmet coffee to their customers.
The green bean coffee that is found in the highland region of Papua New Guinea, where rich volcanic soils exist, give their coffee beans a unique flavor.
We will try to schedule an interview with Coffee Pacifica in the coming weeks but in the meanwhile this is their website so that investors can perform their due diligence www.coffeepacifica.com.
The stock is trading in the $2 range.
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Louis Victor NAMC Newswire 888-463-9237
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