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To: dougjn who wrote (2532)	6/5/1998 5:37:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 11568

EC Commissioner: MCI/WorldCom Merger Is Running Out of Time 05, 1998 4:13 PM NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The European Commission has doubts that anticompetitive concerns surrounding the merger of MCI Communications Corp. (MCIC) and WorldCom Inc. (WCOM) will be resolved within the legal time limits, according to EC Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert. "The remedies that have been offered so far are not meeting our requirements," Van Miert said in an interview with CNBC Friday. Right now, one of the most critical issues to Van Miert is timing. "We are now absolutely running out of time because we have to make a decision in the next weeks. This is a legal obligation," the commissioner said. "And on top of that, we have to stick to the procedure." The procedure includes market tests, addressing competitor concerns and proposing a plan in front of a consultative committee that will be selected by the European National Commission. Van Miert said specific concerns lie with WorldCom's UUnet Internet services business. Both the European Commission and the U.S. Justice Department question the competitive nature of the combined company's involvement in the Internet backbone. In hopes of meeting anticompetitive requirements, MCI announced last week that it would sell its Internet backbone business to Cable & Wireless PLC (CWP). Yet Van Miert said that might not be enough. He said there were two available options for the company. One involves the sale of UUnet, and the other is the elimination of the overlapping businesses created by the merger. -Nicole Ridgway; 201-938-5174