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Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric L who wrote (558)	10/6/1999 2:37:00 AM
From: qdog	Respond to of 12233

NOw this takes the cake, seems the Sprint CEO cut the deal with MCIWorldcom while talking on a......Iridium phone??? Wednesday October 6, 12:44 am Eastern Time Sprint Chairman Waited for Deal By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press Writer KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Sprint Corp. Chairman William T. Esrey, a former investment banker, waited patiently as telecommunications companies all around him were doing deals. Now he's topped them all. Esrey dealt his company to MCI WorldCom for $115 billion Tuesday, the biggest corporate takeover in history. The purchase will enrich both Esrey, who holds ample stock options, and the Sprint shareholders handsomely. MCI will pay a roughly 25 percent premium over Sprint's stock market value. ``I've always viewed him as a very seasoned, sharp telecom executive with an uncanny ability to create shareholder value,' said Brian Adamik of the Yankee Group in Boston. ``Sprint is a great American success story and he is the financial architect.' Richard Nespola, a former Sprint employee who worked with Esrey back in the late 1980s, calls him ``one of the most patient executives that I've seen in the industry.' Esrey, 59, helped build Sprint into the No. 3 long-distance company and patiently rode out talks of takeover bids through the years. He now becomes chairman of WorldCom. Where was he when the largest corporate takeover to date was in the works? ``I was out on my horse in the middle of Colorado, in the middle of nowhere,' said Esrey, an avid athlete, at a New York City news conference Tuesday with Bernard J. Ebbers, president and chief executive of MCI WorldCom. ``Bernie and I talked it all out. I was on an Iridium phone, and it does work,' he joked about the satellite phone company, currently reorganizing in bankruptcy court. Esrey joined Sprint, then known as United Telecommunications, in 1980 as executive vice president of corporate planning. In January 1982, he became president of United Telecom Communications, a Sprint subsidiary, directing efforts that resulted in the decision to construct the first all-digital, fiber-optic network. He became executive vice president and CFO of Sprint in January 1984. Earlier, Esrey was a managing director of the investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. from 1970-1979. He also held management positions with AT&T (NYSE:T - news) and New York Telephone. One could say he had the phone business in his blood. His late father, Alexander, rose through the ranks at AT&T for 44 years, retiring in 1967. In laid-back suburban Kansas City, where Sprint is based, Esrey has a low-key profile. Some people know him and Sprint better as supporters of civic organizations. Peter Lemke, chairman of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce cited Sprint's establishment of a telemarketing center to provide jobs to help people in a welfare-to-work program. ``I think that's an indicator of a commitment,' he said.