MCI WorldCom Starts New Fund
For Telecommunications Ventures
By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter
Tech Center / November 23, 1998
NEW YORK -- MCI WorldCom Inc. said it has formed a
venture fund with an initial value of $500 million to invest
in companies that could help the telecommunications
concern grow.
The fund mirrors investment pools other companies
have created in recent years. AT&T Corp. has three
such funds, including one that dates back to 1992, and
a $1 billion investment fund it is forming as part of its
joint venture with British Telecommunications PLC.
MCI WorldCom's fund will
consolidate existing investments
the Jackson, Miss., concern holds in about 20
companies. Susan Mayer, an MCI WorldCom senior vice
president who has been appointed president of the fund,
said the company hopes to invest in partners that will
help it strategically, while at the same time deliver good
returns. "The hope is that if we do this correctly, we will
have aligned ourselves with partners that will get us into
new markets," Ms. Mayer said.
Separately, MCI WorldCom's board elected Juan
Villalonga Navarro, chairman and chief executive of
Telefonica SA, to become its 18th board member.
Telefonica, Spain's flagship phone company, has two
joint ventures with MCI WorldCom.
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