Verizon wins MCI

Mon Feb 14 19:52:30 UTC 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" <william at elan.net>
>> Sender: owner-nanog at merit.edu
>>
>>
>>
>> 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