Tender has closed and it looks like those tendering will have just about 16 1/4 per cent of their shares taken.
Saturday June 19, 11:49 am Eastern Time
USWest says closed Global Crossing tender offer
NEW YORK, June 19 (Reuters) - U S West Inc. (NYSE:USW - news), the local
phone company weighing two takeover offers, said it closed its previously
planned tender offer to buy 9.5 percent of the stock of one suitor Global
Crossing Ltd (Nasdaq:GBLX - news).
U S West's cash tender offer to buy Global Crossing's stock at $62.75 a share
was oversubscribed. About 240 million shares were offered but U S West will
only buy about 39 million shares to gain its 9.5 percent Global Crossing stake.
Global Crossing's stock closed at $49.75 a share, up 94 cents, on Friday.
U S West said it would buy the stake in Global Crossing in May, when the two companies announced their proposed
$32.3 billion merger agreement.
Qwest Communications International Inc. (Nasdaq:QWST - news) on Sunday launched surprise takeover bids for U
S West and local and long distance phone company Frontier Corp. (NYSE:FRO - news), attempting to woo them
from their current merger agreements with Global Crossing.
Frontier on Thursday said it would take no action on Qwest's $12.0 billion offer and reaffirmed its plan to be acquired
by Global Crossing for about $11.4 billion. Frontier said it would continue to monitor the situation surrounding the
Qwest bid.
U S West, however, is expected to take longer to evaluate Qwest's $34.9 billion offer. U S West recently added
Lehman Brothers to its roster of advisors and it may take several more days for the bankers to review Qwest's offer.
U S West said it would evaluate the Qwest offer in due course.
Qwest and Global Crossing have said they have no plans to alter the terms of their competing offers.
Qwest, meanwhile, is seeking about $4 billion in loans to help pay for the cash portion of its offer to buy Frontier, as
well as transaction fees and expenses, sources familiar with the situation said. Qwest's bankers, Donaldson, Lufkin &
Jenrette and Bank of America Corp. are organizing the loan, which would be spread over several lenders, sources
said.
Qwest has also met with several large shareholders over the past week to calm their concerns over the proposed bids,
sources said. Qwest's stock fell about 25 percent after the bids were announced. Qwest has also reached out to
potential new shareholders to help restore its stock price, sources said.
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