COMCAST REDUCES EXCITE HOLDINGS

Comcast lowered its stake in struggling Excite From June 22 to July 2, Comcast sold 4,090,000 shares in a series of transactions ranging from $2.01 to $2.17 a share. The sale reduced Comcast's stake to 27,163,180 shares, or about 8.4%, from 9.8%.

ADELPHIA SETS SALE OF AT&T STAKE

Adelphia Communications filed to sell 1.8 million shares of its common stock for AT&T Corp., which had received the shares as part of a transaction between AT&T Broadband and Adelphia. Adelphia will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the stock, which is valued at about $73.5 million.

ALCATEL CUTS BID FOR LUCENT FIBER UNIT

Alcatel has reportedly cut the bid it made for Lucent's fiber-optic cable unit due to the downturn in demand for telecom equipment. The cash offer, originally made for $4 billion, has been chopped 25%, to $3 billion, according to French news reports. Analysts once estimated the Atlanta-based unit could fetch up to $8 billion. Ciena Corp. was also reportedly interested in buying the unit. Lucent may have to take the reduced offer ? it is trying to raise $2 billion to complete the spin-off of its former optical components unit Agere Systems.

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