Bellsouth/Sprint Speculation
Any thoughts on the Washington Post story about Bellsouth Sprint merger. See Yahoo main page new headlines.
Report: Phone Giants Discussing Mergers
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Atlanta-based local telephone giant BellSouth Corp is pursuing the purchase of long-distance and wireless telephone company Sprint Corp the Washington Post reported on Thursday, quoting sources familiar with the talks.
According to the unnamed sources, SBC Communications Inc, the dominant local telephone company across the Midwest, Texas and California, also has held conversations about buying WorldCom Inc., the second-largest long-distance business in the U.S. the Post said. However, the sources said there had been no talks between SBC and WorldCom in recent weeks, the newspaper said.
The paper said, citing sources, that BellSouth is discussing a deal in which it would purchase Sprint along with its national wireless business, then sell its 40 percent stake in Cingular Wireless LLC back to its joint-venture partner, SBC.
All three companies declined to comment. And a Sprint spokesman characterized the account as ``rumor and speculation,'' the newspaper said.
According to the sources, SBC's conversations with WorldCom began earlier this year and have recently cooled, but both companies remain interested, the Post said.
At the Merrill Lynch Global Communications Investor Conference in New York on Wednesday, Chief Executive Bernie Ebbers was asked if WorldCom has held merger talks with SBC. Ebbers replied, ``We haven't had any discussions.''
SBC said on Tuesday it has no current plans for acquisitions.
Merger deals involving local Bell companies, created from the breakup of AT&T, and long distance companies would be subject to stringent regulatory review by both the Justice Department (news - web sites) antitrust division and the Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites). |
