|
|
• •
Will Verizon
Need A FCC Kingsbury Commitment To Make A Deal With
MCI?
• • April
24, 2005 / Like AT&T did in 1913, they might need some
sort of Kingsbury Commitment between themselves and the FCC
to force a reasonable buyout, to keep potential monthlyt
telecom cost down to the general public. Long-distance phone
company MCI Inc. still hasn't decided whom to sell their
Telecom company to. They say Qwest Communications
International Inc., $9.75-billion bid was superior to the
pending deal MCI had with Verizon Communications Inc.
• • Verizon has until
late Friday to revise its $7.5-billion agreement or walk
away with a $240-million fee that MCI would have to pay to
break the deal.
• • Since February, MCI's board has
rebuffed Qwest's efforts three times in favor of Verizon's
lower offers. Qwest is the smallest and financially weakest
of the nation's four regional telephone network owners.
Verizon is the nation's strongest and largest phone
company.
• • On Saturday, however, MCI said it could
no longer ignore the higher offer from Qwest, whose
headquarters are in Denver.
• • A spokesman for MCI, based in Ashburn,
Va., would not elaborate on the company's brief statement
that the board had found that Qwest's latest offer was
"superior to the terms of the current MCI/Verizon merger
agreement."
• • On Thursday, Qwest increased its bid to
$30 a share, up from $27.50. Verizon has agreed to pay
$23.10 a share.
• • Qwest said it was gratified that MCI
recognized its bid as superior. But the company also was
wary.
• • "We expect MCI to build upon its
declaration of superiority with specific acts of support,
including expeditiously seeking regulatory approvals," Qwest
said in a statement.
• • Verizon, based in New York, said in a
statement that it would consider its options. But it
questioned whether Qwest's latest offer was "sufficient
compensation for the increased risks associated with
completing the transaction and executing a business plan
thereafter."
• • The MCI board action is a new twist in
the long-running fight. The battle erupted after regional
carrier SBC Communications Inc. agreed in January to acquire
AT&T Corp., the nation's largest long-distance carrier,
for $16 billion.
• • "This has got to be one of the most
interesting if not the strangest merger dances we've seen in
a long time," independent industry analyst Jeffrey Kagan of
Atlanta said.
• • "MCI has done a great job of letting
the combatants build the price, but I don't see it going
much higher if at all," Kagan
said.
• • Should Verizon ultimately win, the
combination would create a global goliath on a par with
SBC-AT&T. Should Qwest win, there would be three major
competitors &emdash; the combined Qwest-MCI, Verizon and
SBC-AT&T.
• • Qwest's struggle has been to convince
MCI directors that its bids are superior to the deal that
MCI already reached with Verizon.
• • Verizon, with its local network,
Verizon Wireless unit and high-speed Internet service, has
been seen as a much stronger company financially &emdash; as
well as a better fit for MCI's national and global network,
and big business and government
customers.
• • Qwest's latest bid is $3.3 billion more
than the company's overall market value, but it already has
$7.25 billion in financing committed to a
deal.
• • Though it doesn't own a wireless unit,
Qwest has a more modern long-distance network and contends
it can better manage a hodgepodge of MCI networks to squeeze
nearly twice the savings out of a merger than Verizon
could.
///
ByLines:
Editors Note
More Articles
• Converging
News 172005 / TeleCom Buy Outs and Asset Seizure
Boom
Respectfully
Submitted
Josie
Cory
Publisher/Editor
TVI Magazine
TVI Magazine,
tviNews.net, YES90, Your Easy Searh, Associated Press,
Reuters, BBC, LA Times, NY Times, VRA's D-Diaries, Industry
Press Releases, They Said It and SmartSearch were used in
compiling and ascertaining this Yes90 news report.
©1956-2005. Copyright. All rights
reserved by: TVI Publications, VRA TelePlay Pictures, xingtv
and Big Six Media Entertainments. Tel/Fax: 323
462.1099.
We Preserve The
Moment
Return
ˆ
To Top
|
|
We Preserve The Moment
Yes90
tviNews
•
Will
Verizon Need A FCC Kingsbury Commitment To Make A
Deal With MCI?
•
/
Television
International Magazine's Person Of The Week POW
•
172005 -
/ NEWS
Convergence - 17th Week of 172005
/
Feature
Story
•
102MCINeedsAKingsbury.htm
Smart90,
s90tv, lookradio, tvimagazine, dv90, vratv, xingtv,
Ddiaries, nbs100, Look Radio, Josie Cory,
Television
With No Borders
|
|
|
|
Legal
Notices Copyright
Information
How
Do We Do Business?
Tel
323 462-1099
SEND
E-MAIL
Return
ˆ
To
Top
|
|
|
