TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Price Cut Rumors Drive Down AST Stock: Following rumors that the nation’s No. 4 computer maker plans to cut its prices, shares of Irvine-based AST Research Inc. fell $2.75. The stock, which this year has fluctuated in price from $23.63 to $32.25 a share, closed at $28.75 in heavy Nasdaq trading. The company declined to comment on the drop. “Everyone is cutting prices--it’s a fact of life in the personal computer industry,” said Ian Gilson, an analyst at investment bank L.H. Friend, Weinress, Frankson & Co. in Irvine. A price war in the industry has driven computer prices down 40% a year for the past two years. AST is the nation’s fourth-largest computer maker and the biggest computer manufacturer in Orange County. In November, AST announced it would lay off more than 1,000 people in the aftermath of its July acquisition of Tandy Corp.’s computer manufacturing business.