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Technology Stocks : Qwest Communications (Q) (formerly QWST) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MangoBoy who wrote (1280)	5/19/1998 11:00:00 AM
From: Dokie	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6846

I'm heavily invested in QWST and would like to invest in similar companies that are positioned to take advantage of the revolution occurring in telecommunications. Among the following companies do any of you on this thread have some opinions about the following companies? WorldCom, Level 3, TCG, TCI, IXC, Williams, Windstar, Iridium and Teledesic. Others to be considered?

To: MangoBoy who wrote (1280)	5/19/1998 11:29:00 PM
From: MangoBoy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6846

[WSJ: MCI May Sell Internet Business To Address Antitrust Concerns] An INTERACTIVE JOURNAL News Roundup (it'd be quite a coup if QWST could snag Uunet from WCOM... mark) MCI Communications Corp., facing antitrust pressure on both sides of the Atlantic over its plan to be acquired by WorldCom Inc., is considering selling all or part of its Internet business. Regulators in the U.S. and Europe are examining the planned combination of the two telecommunications giants. By some estimates, the combined company could control 60% of U.S. communications traffic flowing over so-called Internet backbones, the primary long-distance networks that carry Internet data traffic. Faced with likely regulatory hurdles, MCI is looking at getting rid of its Internet-backbone business, according to a person close to the talks. MCI's wholesale Internet business brings in about $200 million a year, said Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. analyst Frank Governali. It would be a relatively painless sacrifice that could permit the combined company to hang on to WorldCom's $1.8 billion in Internet revenue, he said. "It's a fast and clean fix," the analyst said. Without MCI's wholesale Internet business, the combined company would have no more of the Internet's main roadway than WorldCom already has. Regulators wouldn't have much to object to, some analysts reason. "They couldn't really go back and take away what WorldCom's already got," said Anna-Maria Kovacs, analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott Inc. But other analysts warn European regulators will insist that WorldCom shed some Internet holdings. Phone-company executives in the U.S. and Europe have suggested that the sale of a holding such as WorldCom's UUNet unit would most likely satisfy both the European Commission and the U.S. Justice Department on the Internet-infrastructure issue. MCI has had a somewhat lower profile than WorldCom in the burgeoning Internet business, and a sale of its Internet operations probably would be less dramatic than a sale of UUNet, which was acquired for $2 billion in 1996 by MFS Communications, which in turn was taken over by WorldCom for $14.4 billion. By contrast, the MCI operations might fetch much less. Analysts put the value of MCI's wholesale Internet business at around $500 million, although some thought it might fetch more and some ventured values as low as $300 million. The disparities could arise from uncertainties about exactly what portion of the assets may be for sale. The Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission are reviewing the WorldCom/MCI deal. The Justice Department must rule on whether the proposed merger might have a negative impact on the U.S. long-distance market, and a decision on that issue isn't expected for eight months. The European Commission is focusing on the issue of Internet infrastructure and has until July 15 to make a final ruling. It previously notified WorldCom and MCI about its objections to the merger. The companies have said they are confident they can get the necessary approvals and close the deal this summer. A spokesman for the commission's merger task force said it is studying ways to measure market power over Internet infrastructure. A commission official said three options are being considered: measurements based on network capacity; measurements based on how many Internet-service providers are connected to the network, or measurements based on how much traffic is carried over the network. Some of the phone companies testifying at commission hearings embrace the third option and are expected to use methodology developed in a soon-to-be-released report by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to bolster their arguments about why the proposed merger shouldn't be approved without modifications. OECD researchers traced routes to the 100 most popular sites on the Internet to find out what companies are relied on most in exchanges of data traffic. While a combined WorldCom and MCI would be able to handle traffic to and from about 50 of the sites without relying on any other carrier, Sprint Corp., the next biggest market competitor, is able to do the same only for about 18 of the sites. The OECD's research shows that even a large Internet-service provider like Sprint needs MCI/WorldCom more than MCI/WorldCom needs it. For example, MCI/WorldCom would need to hand off to Sprint to reach only three of the top 100 sites, while Sprint would have to go to MCI/WorldCom to gain access to 26 of the top sites, according to the OECD research. Bell Atlantic Corp. has made similar observations, based on separate research it has conducted. Using its own measuring tool, Bell Atlantic argues that the proposed merger would control between 50% to 60% of Internet infrastructure in the U.S. MCI probably wouldn't sell its Internet unit to an entrenched competitor such as AT&T Corp. or Sprint, analysts said. But British Telecommunications PLC, which had planned to buy MCI, could be a bidder, analysts said. Other likely buyers include newer companies with national aspirations, such as IXC Communications Inc., Level 3 Communications Inc., Qwest Communications International Inc. or Intermedia Communications Inc. MCI, WorldCom and most of the companies cited as likely buyers all declined to comment or did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Williams Cos., which has been frequently cited as a possible bidder, said it is not currently talking to MCI about the business. Selling MCI assets would be far more palatable to the companies and to shareholders than having to sell off UUNet, said Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Stephanie Comfort.