STOCKS TO WATCH: Frontier, Gateway, Lucent, Razorfish and Salon.com

The local and long-distance telephone provider announced after the bell Monday that it would offer secure messaging and e-mail service.

Frontier has formed a partnership with Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) and the Sun-Netscape Alliance to offer companies e-mail and messaging services that can grow as the companies' demands grow, the company said.

The service could save companies between 50 percent and 75 percent by eliminating the need for special software and information technology specialists who manage the systems.

The company said it plans to offer other products to run on its network. In the first quarter of 2000, Frontier will offer calendar and scheduling services on the Internet.

Frontier shares closed off 3 to 44 7/8 Monday.

The PC maker announced a 2-for-1 stock split Monday. Its shares closed up 2 1/2 to 77 5/8 ahead of the announcement.

The split will take effect Sept. 7 for all shareholders of record on Aug. 20.

"We're delivering on our commitments to shareholders at each and every turn," said CEO Ted Waitt in a prepared release. "Our revenue stream is more diverse than ever and quarter by quarter, our financial performance is rock solid and consistent."

Following the split, the company will have more than 315 million shares outstanding.

Last quarter, Gateway beat Street estimates by a penny a share, earning $89 million, or 56 cents a share, on sales of $1.9 billion.

First Call consensus expects it to earn 68 cents a share in its third quarter and $2.83 a share in the fiscal year.

"With the number one consumer desktop in the United States and with a rapidly expanding presence among small and mid-sized businesses, it only makes sense that our shares should be as widely accessible as our products," said COO Jeff Weitzen in the release.

The stock surged to a 52-week high of 84 1/2 in February after falling to a low of 36 1/8 in October.

Twenty-one of the 23 analysts following the stock maintain either a "buy" or "strong buy" recommendation.

The world's largest phone- equipment maker is in talks to buy International Network Services (Nasdaq: INSS) for $3.7 billion, or about $55 a share, according to a report by Forbes.com, which quoted a person familiar with the negotiations. Lucent rose 5/16 to 63 5/8, while International rose 1 3/8 to 47 7/16.

The digital communications and Web design company, said it plans to buy i-Cube (NASDAQ: ICUB), a Cambridge, MA-based provider of electronic business transformation services in a deal worth around $677 million.

Each share of i-Cube will be exchanged for 0.875 shares of Razorfish.

Salon.com topped Street estimates in its first quarter Monday, losing $4.6 million, or 43 cents a share, on sales of $1 million.

First Call consensus predicted the newly public company to lose 61 cents a share in the quarter.

In the year-ago period, Salon.com lost $1.4 million on sales of $408,000.

Salon.com reported a 13 percent increase in traffic, to 1.3 million users in June from 1.15 million in March.

The company recorded a one-time charge of $11.5 million related to a non-cash preferred deemed dividend associated with Salon.com's Series C preferred stock issued in April. Including that expense, Salon.com lost $16.1 million, or $1.50 a share.

Its shares moved up 9/16 to 8 3/4 ahead of the earnings report.