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Technology Stocks : WCOM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ANANT who wrote (2596)	6/12/1998 8:14:00 PM
From: MGV	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11568

MCI Corporate Counsel is highly regarded. The excerpts below from the hearing with C&W today offer further evidence of their skill. C&W just may have dropped a cream puff of a deal. ______________________________________________________________________ "Cable & Wireless charged that, under the original sales agreement, MCI was obligated to first offer it a chance to buy any revised package. But during a 40-minute hearing, Judge Jackson repeatedly asked Cable & Wireless attorney Charles Lettow why MCI could not invoke a simple $25 million termination provision in the earlier sales contract. ''Why could not MCI decide the transaction is void and pay the $25 million?'' Jackson asked. ''It seems that's an option open to them.'' Lettow said that other provisions of the contract required MCI to first negotiate in ''good faith'' with Cable & Wireless. Asked for evidence that MCI would not negotiate in good faith, Lettow said ''because they told us they wouldn't.'' MCI attorney Phillip Cohan told the judge that regulators have not disclosed specifically what assets needed to be divested yet. If MCI was ordered to negotiate a revised sale with Cable & Wireless it would be ''toward an objective that is totally unknown.''" ______________________________________________________________________ Bottom line personal view: MCI's backbone and retail internet assets and business will now go to the highest bidder before 6/19. The proceeds will exceed $1.1 B. Vinton Cerf will not leave and MCI Systemhouse will not be included in the transaction. If WCOM share price falls further, go long.

To: ANANT who wrote (2596)	6/12/1998 8:17:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 11568

ANANT and all, latest article from Bloomberg: MCI Free to Seek Other Buyers for Its Internet Unit (Update2) Bloomberg News June 12, 1998, 6:24 p.m. ET MCI Free to Seek Other Buyers for Its Internet Unit (Update2) (Adds judge's ruling and comments from analysts and antitrust attorneys.) Washington, June 12 (Bloomberg) -- MCI Communications Corp. won court approval to seek buyers for its Internet businesses in an attempt to win European and U.S. antitrust approval for its $40.2 billion acquisition by WorldCom Inc. London-based Cable & Wireless Plc, which agreed last month to pay MCI $625 million for part of MCI's Internet assets, can't stop the No. 2 U.S. long-distance company from negotiating with other buyers for a bigger divestiture that may include those properties, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled. Separately, Europe's antitrust chief Karel Van Miert said MCI's expanded divestiture plan is ''a good sign'' that WorldCom and MCI are addressing the concerns of antitrust enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic. The regulators are worried that a combined WorldCom-MCI would control more than half of the world's Internet traffic. Potential bidders for MCI's Internet businesses include IXC Communications Inc., AT&T Corp., Sprint Corp., GTE Corp., and PSINet Inc., analysts said. IXC officials refused to comment and the other companies didn't return calls for comment. It's likely one buyer would get all of MCI's Internet assets, leaving Cable & Wireless empty-handed -- except for a $25 million payment from MCI for breaking the earlier sales agreement -- unless it wins the bidding, industry analysts and antitrust attorneys said. UUnet Stays The companies are seeking alternatives that wouldn't require them to sell WorldCom's UUnet unit. ''UUnet is about eight times bigger than MCI Internet'' and is ''absolutely not for sale,'' said WorldCom President Bernard Ebbers. MCI Chairman Bert Roberts Jr. presented a new plan to U.S. Justice Department antitrust chief Joel Klein at a Wednesday meeting, a person familiar with the talks said. The Justice Department is working closely with European regulators to present a unified front on the proposed acquisition. An EU advisory committee is expected to make a recommendation next week to give the 15-member European Union time to make a decision by a July 15 deadline. Cable & Wireless claimed in its lawsuit filed this week that MCI must negotiate with it first before trying to find another buyer for its Internet assets. Letting MCI sell to another company would mean ''immediate, severe, and irreparable harm to Cable & Wireless,'' according to the complaint. ''They've told us they will go out for a rebid on assets that include those involved in this transaction,'' Charles Lettow, Cable and Wireless's lawyer told Judge Jackson at today's hearing. Lawyers for Cable & Wireless asked for a temporary order enforcing the May 28 agreement between the companies. Jackson denied the request, leaving MCI free to seek other buyers. MCI argued it didn't know what would be necessary to appease U.S. and European antitrust enforcers. ''If this court were to grant the relief they request . . . you'd be ordering the parties to negotiate in the best of good faith towards an objective that is totally unknown,'' said MCI lawyer Phillip Cohan. MCI shares rose 1 3/16 to 49 13/16. WorldCom rose 1/4 to 42 1/2. And American Depositary Receipts of Cable & Wireless fell 3/8 to 33 7/16. --James Rowley and Anne Marie Squeo in Washington at 202-624-1913