  We propose a scheme for generating multipartite entangled coherent states via
entanglement swapping, with an example of a physical realization in ion traps.
Bipartite entanglement of these multipartite states is quantified by the
concurrence. We also use the $N$--tangle to compute multipartite entanglement
for certain systems. Finally we establish that these results for entanglement
can be applied to more general multipartite entangled nonorthogonal states.
