Lucent Technologies, moving to strengthen its data networking business, said Tuesday it would buy telecom software maker International Network Services for about US$3.7 billion worth of stock.
International Network Services, or INS, makes software used to integrate and manage IP networks – those that run on Internet protocol, which directs traffic on the World Wide Web.
Also:
AT&T: No AOL deal in the works
Qwest packages phone, Net services
Taiwanese hack back at China
Razorfish agrees to acquire i-Cube
Germany probes Net book sales
Sony speaks Spanish- - - - - -
Lucent (LU) said in a statement that it had signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition. Under its terms, each share of INS (INSS) will be converted into 0.8473 shares of Lucent. Based on Lucent's closing Monday stock price of $63.625, the acquisition would be valued at about $3.7 billion, or about $54 an INS share, on a fully diluted basis.
In making the deal, Lucent said it was "targeting the rapidly growing market for consulting, design, integration, and support for next-generation networks." Cisco has been the leader in data networking, but Lucent has made itself a player with a series of acquisitions, most notably the purchase of Ascend Communications earlier this year.
- Back to topAT&T's version: AT&T on Monday denied its was discussing a deal with America Online that might weaken the role of Excite@Home in delivering high-speed Internet access, but left open was the question of what might happen to Excite's Internet content business.
"While there have been meetings with America Online in the recent past, there is no specific proposal currently under discussion between AT&T and America Online," AT&T (T) said in a statement.
AT&T's remarks were made in response to a New York Times story that said AT&T might open its cable systems to America Online (AOL) and other Internet access providers. Despite its swift denial, the Times report raised new questions about the integration of the somewhat disparate businesses of Excite, AtHome, and AT&T.
"We would not be surprised to eventually see some transaction in which Excite were spun off from AtHome," Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget said in a research report.
AtHome has contracts to be the exclusive Internet service provider to 21 cable companies. Most of these contracts run through the year 2002, meaning customers who get Internet access through Excite@Home (ATHM) now must pay an additional fee if they want content from another service provider such as America Online.
6. Back to topThrowing in the Net: Taking a new tack in the long-distance price wars, Qwest on Tuesday unveiled a package that would offer free Internet access to consumers who buy special long-distance calling services.
Qwest ([QWST](https://www.wired.com/stocks_quotes.asp?symbol=qwst)) said its deal features unlimited dialup Internet service and 250 minutes of domestic long-distance calling service for a flat rate of $24.95 per month. Additional minutes will be charged at 10 cents per minute.
The move by Qwest, the No. 4 US long-distance company, comes one day after rival MCI WorldCom cut evening, overnight, and weekend calling rates to as low as 5 cents per minute. Long-distance companies have been battling to take advantage of their shrinking internal costs to offer discounts to customers in hopes that they also will gain subscribers to more lucrative services such as Internet, data, and wireless.
4\. [Back to top](#top)__Striking back:__ Taiwan may be dwarfed by its saber-rattling rival mainland China, but it has shown it is not to be trifled with on at least one battleground – the Web.
Hackers from the computer-savvy island have inserted pro-Taiwan messages into several Communist Chinese government Web sites in retaliation for a similar attack on Taiwan government sites by a mainland Chinese hacker.
The Web attacks sparked concern from military authorities who said an Internet war could add to already simmering tension over Taiwan's drive for equal status with the mainland.
Taiwan news media reported Tuesday that several local hackers had succeeded in inserting Taiwan's flag, a sound file that played its national anthem, and pictures of Taiwan presidential candidates on mainland Chinese Web sites.
5\. [Back to top](#top)__Alley cat:__ The Silicon Alley Web design shop Razorfish said Tuesday it had agreed to acquire i-Cube, a Massachusetts-based provider of electronic business services.
In the deal, valued at about $677 million, i-Cube ([ICUB](https://www.wired.com/stocks_quotes.asp?symbol=icub)) chief executive Michael Pehl will become chief operating officer and a director of Razorfish ([RAZF](https://www.wired.com/stocks_quotes.asp?symbol=razf)). Jeff Dachis will remain CEO, president, and a director of Razorfish.
Razorfish said it will combine i-Cube's consulting and integration services with its own strategy, design, and technology services marketed to global companies and organizations. The combined company will be headquartered in New York and employ over 1,000 people in 11 cities across seven countries.
4\. [Back to top](#top)__Bad books:__ America's two largest Internet booksellers are shipping hate literature to Germany, including Adolf Hitler's *Mein Kampf,* in violation of German law, a Jewish organization said Monday.
The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center said it complained to the German Justice Ministry about the shipments by Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. In a statement Monday, the center said it had received confirmation from the ministry that it was investigating the two Internet retailers.
The center has also complained to German-based Bertelsmann, which owns 50 percent of Barnesandnoble.com, and to Amazon.com, urging them to take steps to see than neither company "inadvertently emerges as a major purveyor of hate in Germany." Amazon was not immediately available for comment but Bertelsmann on Tuesday said it was advising partner Barnesandnoble.com to stop selling the banned books.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the center's Internet researchers in Germany had ordered and received copies of *Mein Kampf* and *The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,* a fraudulent early 20th Century document that claimed an international Jewish conspiracy, from the two Internet companies.
5\. [Back to top](#top)__Sony habla español:__ Sony has taken an equity stake in Yupi.com, a Spanish-language Web publisher jockeying for position in Latin America's promising electronic commerce arena.
Privately held Yupi.com operates an Internet search engine, chat rooms, and other Web services and, last spring, sold equity stakes to a Miami venture capital group and IFX, an Internet services provider, for $13 million apiece.
Neither Miami-based Yupi.com nor Sony would release financial details but said in a news release that Sony's music and movies divisions would provide pictures and other content to Yupi.com sites. Sony will use the Yupi.com outlets, claiming some 6 million monthly visitors, to promote films, TV shows, and recordings by Ricky Martin, Mariah Carey, Bruce Springsteen, and other musicians under contract to Sony, a Sony spokesman said.
*Reuters contributed to this report.*
