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

To: memery who wrote (2673)	6/19/1998 11:54:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 11568

EU Takes Further Step to Approving WorldCom's Purchase of MCI Bloomberg News June 19, 1998, 10:24 a.m. ET EU Takes Further Step to Approving WorldCom's Purchase of MCI Brussels, June 19 (Bloomberg) -- European Union regulators plan to approve WorldCom Inc.'s proposed $42.7 billion purchase of MCI Communications Corp. in the next few days after MCI answers some final questions on its offer to sell its Internet business, said an EU official close to the negotiations. European Commission antitrust experts, who have been reviewing the acquisition since November, today told a committee of competition officials from the 15 EU countries that WorldCom and MCI have allayed almost all their concerns the combined company will dominate the fast-growing Internet, the official said. In a non-binding recommendation, the committee unanimously backed approving the acquisition once MCI addresses some outstanding questions about how it will transfer its Internet customer accounts to the company that buys its Internet assets, the official said, without giving details. Approval from the EU puts WorldCom one step closer to completing the largest acquisition ever in the telecommunications industry. The companies have worked closely with regulators in the past month to get approval, clearing their way to create a stronger competitor to No. 1 U.S. phone company AT&T Corp. The companies expect this summer to complete the combination, which was announced in November. MCI WorldCom, which will be the second-largest U.S. phone company, will control about a quarter of the $70 billion-a-year U.S. long- distance market and offer local services in more than 100 cities. Commission officials on Wednesday asked competitors of MCI and WorldCom to comment on the concessions the companies offered. Their responses are now being reviewed, the official said. Though some competitors said the concessions didn't go far enough, their concerns don't look substantial enough to necessitate further concessions, the official said. The conditions the commission outlined to competitors included requiring MCI to give its Internet customer accounts to the company that buys the business and a guarantee from MCI that it won't try to reacquire its old customers following the sale, said Estelle Rozine, spokeswoman for France Telecom SA, which received the list of concessions. MCI agreed in principle last week to sell all its Internet assets, after its proposed sale of its wholesale Internet business to Cable & Wireless Plc failed to satisfy EU concerns. MCI's earlier agreement with Cable & Wireless only included MCI's wholesale clients and not business and consumer Internet customers. Mark Weeks, a spokesman for WorldCom, wouldn't comment on the latest developments, though he said ''fruitful'' discussions are still going on. A report yesterday on the cable channel CNBC that the companies reached an agreement with the EU on terms that would satisfy regulators' concerns was ''premature,'' Weeks said. The EU official said any decision by EU regulators will be discussed with U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission officials. The Justice Department isn't expected to make a decision until after reviewing terms of a specific agreement by MCI to sell its Internet assets, a person familiar with the negotiations said yesterday. The U.S. agency's decision isn't expected to come until a couple of weeks after the EU decision. EU antitrust officials' decision to approve the acquisition will need approval by the 20-member European Commission, the EU's executive agency. A final ruling is expected on July 8. --Alison Jahncke in the Brussels bureau (32 2) 285 4300/jgn

To: memery who wrote (2673)	6/19/1998 1:26:00 PM
From: Jon Cave	Respond to of 11568

Memery, I have been looking at buying some WCOM for the last few months. I can't decide when to pull the triger. I bought into LCI when QWST bought them. If I remember correctly, the conversion of LCI into QWST was based on the price of QWST 10 or 15 days before the close. The folks shorted QWST too much and I got burned on that entry into QWST. Before the conversion of LCI into QWST, QWST share price dropped quite a bit. I was wondering if the same thing could happen to WCOM. I thought about buying on the weakness in WCOM's stock when it was around 43. I quess I missed that opportunity. I have thought about buying MCIC to get an entry point into WCOM. I quess the best thing to do is just wait and be patient and wait for a dip. Problem is WCOM might hit 50 before it dips <G>. Thanks, Jon Cave