I do not know if anybody had the opportunity to check out the FOREX markets during the past few days, but there was a major consolidation session in Chicago on Friday, as the Fed made a few hawkish statements about inflation, and a lot of traders sold their USD shorts.  Should this trend continue, chances are that the Euro will lose some of its shine versus the dollar.  So maybe the time has really come for Euro vendors (e.g. Alcatel, Ericsson, Siemens) to really consider even more North-American based companies to complement their respective product portfolios.  Arguably, this has been already taking place, with Siemens and Alcatel quietly buying companies such as Chantry Networks and Spatial Wireless (respectively).  But we expect to see a lot more of those acquisitions in 2005.  It is now still relatively cheap for a strong Euro player to buy some assets on this side of the Ocean, but that window might close if US interest rates keep going up.