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To: Anthony Wong who wrote (2829)	7/8/1998 1:51:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11568

GTE to pursue lawsuit against MCI/WorldCom merger Wednesday July 8, 1:14 pm Eastern Time NEW YORK, July 8 (Reuters) - GTE Corp. (GTE - news), while expressing pleasure that MCI Communications Corp. (MCIC - news) is required to divest its Internet assets before merging with WorldCom Inc. (WCOM - news), said Wednesday it will pursue its lawsuit against the merger until all of its concerns are met. Stamford, Conn.-based GTE, which lost the international bidding war for MCI last fall, filed suit in May to block the proposed $37 billion deal. GTE contended that the combined MCI-WorldCom would monopolize the Internet business and threaten competition in the long-distance telephone market. Earlier on Wednesday, the European Commission cleared the MCI-WorldCom merger on the condition MCI sell its entire Internet business. MCI and WorldCom also agreed to certain non-compete and non-solicitation clauses which would prevent them from competing with the buyer of the assets for a limited period. GTE said while many of its concerns have been addressed, it wants regulators to build ''adequate safeguards to ensure that the spin-out of MCI's Internet business will be durable and fully effective.'' GTE said it wants safeguards to prevent a combined WorldCom/MCI from recapturing the divested Internet customers who currently buy other services from MCI. GTE also said the measures required by the anti-trust regulators do not address the ''serious competitive problems caused by this deal in long distance markets, where MCI and WorldCom are the second and fourth largest carriers.'' Regardless of the outcome in Europe, GTE said that it, along with other companies, will continue to press its claims about long distance issues before the Federal Communications Commission, the Justice Department and in the district court in the United States.