MCI WorldCom Says Taylor to Retire at Year's End (Correct)
Bloomberg News
September 23, 1998, 9:18 a.m. ET
MCI WorldCom Says Taylor to Retire at Year's End (Correct)
(Corrects 8th paragraph to say analysts expect other top MCI
executives to stay. The story ran yesterday.)
Jackson, Mississippi, Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- MCI WorldCom
Inc., the second-largest U.S. long-distance phone company, said
former MCI Chief Executive Gerald Taylor will retire, announcing
the move just a week after WorldCom completed its purchase of
MCI.
Taylor, 56, who was the sixth employee hired at MCI in 1969,
will retire at year's end for personal reasons, though he will
remain on the company's board, MCI WorldCom said. The 30-year MCI
veteran had been named to head international operations at the
combined company.
Taylor could be the first of many executives to leave the
new MCI WorldCom as the companies work to meld their operations,
analysts said.
''There's overlapping responsibilities of the two management
teams,'' said Brian Adamik, an analyst at Yankee Group in Boston.
''You always see some shakeout in mergers like this.''
MCI WorldCom didn't immediately name a replacement for
Taylor.
The company's shares rose 5/8 to 48 1/4.
Earlier today, phone-equipment maker Lucent Technologies
Inc. said it hired for MCI Chief Information Officer Lance Boxer
to head Lucent's group for developing communications software.
Still, analysts said they don't expect MCI WorldCom's top
executives from MCI, especially Chairman Bert Roberts and Timothy
Price, who oversees U.S. operations, to leave.
''The main players will stay in place,'' said Jeffrey Kagan,
president of market researcher Kagan Telecom Associates in
Atlanta.
Jackson, Mississippi-based WorldCom, the No. 4 long-distance
company, completed its $47 billion purchase of No. 2 MCI
Communications Corp. last week to create MCI WorldCom.
--Andrew Brooks in the Princeton newsroom (609) 279-4066/jcn/gam |
