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Re: Verizon wins MCI

  • From: Jeff Wheeler
  • Date: Mon Feb 14 14:53:46 2005 
On Feb 14, 2005, at 2:31 PM, Kevin Oberman wrote:




Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 11:22:36 -0800 (PST)
From: "william(at)elan.net" <[email protected]>
Sender: [email protected]



On Mon, 14 Feb 2005, Hannigan, Martin wrote:




I was set on QUUest or UUQwest for the new name, too.



What, don't you like UUVeriNET even better? :)




Verizon wins the battle for MCI, pays < 7B.




I'm not financier, but this price seems rather low considering how
large

Worldcom is/used to be and that it includes all former UUNET, MCI,
MFS,

WCOM, etc. BTW - did this include Digex as well?



The articles I have read indicate that Verizon was not the best

offer. Qwest bid $7B. But MCI wanted to be bought by someone who was

financially stable and Qwest has a huge debt load which the purchase of

MCI would only increase. They were also looking for a better known

purchaser and Qwest is not as familiar to the public as Verizon ("Can

you here me, now?")



To me, it sounds like MCI determined that it could not succeed on its
own

and that "forced" the sale and MCI seemed to want Verizon to buy them

from the start because of the long-term value to shareholders and bond

holders, the REAL owners of the company.



Add to that that Verizon also agreed to assume $4B in MCI debts and the
purchase price doesn't look so low anymore. Also, despite all the news
of Qwest's offer, according to what I read Verizon has been in talks
with MCI for 2 years now, so they probably had a much more detailed
agreement ironed out to MCI's liking.



--

Jeff Wheeler

Postmaster, Network Admin

US Institute of Peace