You were right to make the distinction re: CPEs.
This article on SBC's international plans just came out:
Wednesday October 20 11:20 PM ET
SBC Says Has Plans To Grow Internationally
CHICAGO (Reuters) - SBC Communications Inc (NYSE:SBC - news)., the biggest U.S. local telephone company, said Wednesday it intends to grow internationally but declined to comment specifically on reports that it was in talks with Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE:DT - news).
``We are very interested in an international business,' SBC Chairman Edward Whitacre said during a speech to Chicago business leaders. ``This is a global economy that we operate in. We have to serve our customers, and so we have plans to grow internationally.'
Earlier this month, a German newspaper, citing unnamed sources, reported that SBC was in talks with Deutsche Telekom. The report did not indicate whether the talks concerned an alliance or merger.
SBC, which completed its long-pending acquisition of Chicago-based Baby Bell Ameritech Corp earlier this month, is the largest non-European telecommunications investor in Europe. Its international investments total about $22 billion in 22 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.
Whitacre said the proliferation of mergers in the U.S. telecommunications industry confirmed his opinion that SBC's acquisition of Ameritech was the right move, but he promised not to stand in the way of his competitors' merger efforts.
SBC and Ameritech said repeatedly during the 17 months it took for their deal to pass regulatory scrutiny that their competitors were swaying public opinion against them.
``It would be easy, and might just be a lot of fun, for us to oppose their mergers,' he said. ``They certainly opposed ours. But I want you to know that we're not going to engage in the same tactics, the same misleading advertising and so forth.
``We'll make sure that our positions on the critical issues like Internet access are understood, but we're going to remain focused on competition, not regulatory confrontation,' he said.
Since SBC announced its $61 billion plan to acquire Ameritech in May 1998, there have been a number of blockbuster telecommunications deals including Bell Atlantic Corp's (NYSE:BEL - news) $53 billion agreement to buy GTE Corp (NYSE:GTE - news), and MCI WorldCom Inc (Nasdaq:WCOM - news).'s plan to buy Sprint Corp (NYSE:FON - news) for $115 billion.
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