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To: ANANT who wrote (2647)	6/18/1998 8:03:00 AM
From: Patrick Thompson	Respond to of 11568

Prediction: Sprint and GTE will whine and oppose new proposal. After all, that is what they do best.

To: ANANT who wrote (2647)	6/18/1998 8:41:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11568

ANANT & all, from Reuters newswire: Thursday June 18, 5:37 am Eastern Time EU in consultations with MCI WorldCom rivals BRUSSELS, June 18 (Reuters) - European Union regulators have sought the reaction of rival companies to new offers planned by WorldCom Inc (WCOM - news) and MCI Communications Corp (MCIC - news) to win approval for their $37 billion merger, sources close to the talks said on Thursday. The European Commission, the EU executive, did not reveal whether it had received new proposals, but asked questions on Wednesday on conditions that could be imposed to ensure the two U.S. merger partners will not dominate supply of Internet backbone services. Rival companies include GTE Corp (GTE - news) and Sprint Corp (FON - news), also U.S. telecoms firms, which have been the most vocal opponents of the deal. A Commission spokesman declined to comment. But the Commission is racing against the clock to reverse a draft decision to ban the deal which will be submitted on Friday to a panel of experts from the 15 EU states who advise it on mergers and acquisitions. WorldCom and MCI have been negotiating intensely with the Commission and the U.S. Justice Department, which is also investigating the merger but is believed to be less advanced, since last week. WorldCom's CEO Bernie Ebbers was quoted in the International Herald Tribune on Thursday as being confident of getting get EU approval for the deal. ''We would expect that the recommendation that is made Friday...would be in support of the transaction,'' he said. The companies are considering the divestment of MCI's Internet retail businesses after European Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert said that an offer to sell only MCI's wholesale interets fell short of eliminating the overlap with WorldCom's prized UUNet Technologies. The Commission has until July 15 to give its verdict, but wants to take the issue to its weekly meeting on July 8. The merger advisory committee could meet again before then if all competition concerns are not settled today, as happened with the merger a year ago of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, which also faced EU regulatory hurdles.