WorldCom is frustrated because Wall Street investors just look at the total company. Wall Street isn't giving them credit for their growth.

To me the combination is a very sensible one. It's a good mix. Alcatel has done very, very well in the United States and elsewhere, but there's not that much overlap (with Lucent), so I think it's a powerful global position, possibly forcing Nortel and Ericsson to get together.

Having to search for a chairman and CEO could delay the turnaround for some period of time. They have a somewhat diminished but still strong market position.

Ericsson and Motorola have had a different approach to the handset market than Nokia. Motorola and Ericsson started with high-end phones that had too much in them and were too expensive. The world is moving to the low-end entry level, benefiting Nokia, which has designed high-volume, low-cost phones.

In both cases there's precious little reason to own these stocks, even though they're probably cheap. It's as if you own a house in the worst part of town, and you're willing to sell it at half its value. It may be a bargain, but nobody wants to live in the worst part of town.

This isn't a pleasant place for either of these companies to be.