CUC PLANS STOCK SWAP TO BUY 2 SOFTWARE FIRMS.Byline: Peter H. Lewis The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times CUC International CUC (Comp-U-Card) International Inc., a huge membership-based consumer services conglomerate with travel, shopping, auto, dining, home improvement and financial services offered to more than 60 million customers worldwide based out of Stamford, Connecticut and headed by Kirk Inc., a company best known for its membership shopping clubs, said Tuesday that it planned to swap more than $1.8 billion in stock to acquire two leading consumer software companies, Sierra On-Line Inc. and Davidson & Associates. The proposed merger would overnight make CUC CUC Cuban Convertible Peso (ISO currency code) CUC Columbia Union College (Takoma Park, MD, USA) CUC Canadian Unitarian Council CUC Canadian Ultimate Championships one of the software industry's biggest developers of entertainment and educational programs for personal computers, the Internet and on-line services. CUC, which sells discount merchandise and services to more than 40 million subscribers worldwide, maintains vast computer data bases of discount consumer products ranging from televisions to travel packages. While it has stepped up efforts recently in offering those goods over the Internet and on-line services, the proposed acquisitions are widely seen as a cross-industry merger with uncertain benefits. Analysts appeared to be surprised by CUC's double-barrel entry into the software development business, which represents a break from the company's long-held strategy of reselling products rather than making them. "It really came out of left field," said Craig Bibb bibb n. 1. Nautical A bracket on the mast of a ship to support the trestletrees. 2. A bibcock. [Alteration of bib.] , a consumer industry analyst at Paine Webber Paine Webber and Company was an American stock brokerage firm that was acquired by the Swiss bank UBS AG in 2000. The company was founded in 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts, by William Alfred Paine and Wallace G. Webber. in New York. "CUC is incredibly successful at product distribution and direct marketing, calling people at home and selling them on the advantages of discount travel services, but it is not a software developer, or even anything close to it." Investors were also not enthusiastic about the proposed deal, sending shares of CUC down sharply in heavy trading. The stock fell $6.25 a share, or 17 percent, to $31.25 on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. . CAPTION(S): CHART Box (1-3--Color) CUC'S TECHNO-PLUNGE (1) CUC (2) Davidson (3) SIERRA Associated Press |
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