R........Monday October 4 9:56 PM ET
MCI Said To Top $100B Sprint Offer
NEW YORK (AP) - MCI WorldCom Inc. (Nasdaq:WCOM - news) on Monday topped a $100 billion offer for
Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON - news), the nation's No. 3 long distance carrier, in what appears to be the largest
corporate takeover in history, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
MCI WorldCom late Monday sweetened its offer rather than risk losing Sprint to rival Bell South Corp., this
person said.
Terms of the deal, expected to be announced Tuesday morning, were not immediately available. A successful bid
will produce the largest corporate merger ever, eclipsing the pending $82 billion deal between Exxon Corp.
(NYSE:XON - news) and Mobil Corp. (NYSE:MOB - news)
It was unclear late Monday whether Bell South, an Atlanta-based Baby Bell, would raise its offer or walk away.
Also unclear was the potential of a third bid from Deutsche Telekom, which owns 10 percent of Sprint.
MCI WorldCom is the nation's second biggest long-distance company and one of the world's biggest operators of the networks that make up the Internet, but has no
wireless calling business. Sprint PCS would fill that hole nicely.
BellSouth wants Sprint's long-distance business to complement its local telephone business in nine Southeast states. Like the other Baby Bells, the Atlanta-based
company is hopeful that federal regulators will soon allow it to offer long-distance service in its home region.
Deutsche Telekom, meanwhile, needs Sprint to establish a foothold in the U.S. market. |
