2 PHONE MERGERS PASS HURDLE.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Hastening the megamerger trend in the telecommunications business, the Justice Department on Tuesday cleared two multibillion-dollar marriages involving regional phone companies. The government closed its antitrust probe into the $17 billion merger of Pacific Telesis
Pacific Telesis Group was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies created after the 1984 breakup of AT&T as a holding company for Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell. Group and SBC (1) (SBC Communications Inc., San Antonio, TX, www.sbc.com) A large, national telecommunications company that grew from a multitude of local and regional companies, including Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell, into a single, unified brand by 2002. Communications Inc. The department also said it would tentatively allow U S West Inc. to go ahead with its $5.3 billion acquisition of Continental Cablevision Inc. The separate decisions by the Justice Department were the latest sign of U.S. flexibility toward the frenzied consolidation in the industry, which reached new heights this past weekend with MCI Communications This article is about MCI before it merged with WorldCom. For other uses, see MCI. MCI Communications was an American telecommunications company that was instrumental in legal and regulatory changes that led to the breakup of the AT&T monopoly of American telephony and agreement to be acquired by British Telecommunications in a $20.8 billion deal. Long-distance carriers, local phone companies and cable TV companies are racing to combine in anticipation of federal rules that will make it easier for them to compete on each other's turf. In approving the PacTel-SBC deal, the Justice Department apparently agreed with the parties' contention that their merger of core local phone businesses, which do not overlap in geography, did not constitute a monopoly. PacTel serves the West, while SBC provides service to the Southwest. The deal still needs approval of California regulators, expected by next spring, and the Federal Communications Commission Federal Communications Commission (FCC), independent executive agency of the U.S. government established in 1934 to regulate interstate and foreign communications in the public interest. , which needs to approve the transfer of radio licenses between the parties. Shareholders endorsed the deal in July. In its U S West decision, the Justice Department said that the companies agreed to sell Continental's interest in Teleport Communications Group Teleport Communications Group (TCG) was the first Competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) in the U.S. First formed in 1985, it competed with the existing telephone companies to provide dial tone and related services in the largest U.S. markets. Inc. by the end of 1998 as a condition of the merger. The department's Antitrust Division said that the initial deal would have greatly lessened competition in certain markets for telephone services where Teleport is one of only a small number of firms challenging U S West's dominance. The FCC (1) (Federal Communications Commission, Washington, DC, www.fcc.gov) The U.S. government agency that regulates interstate and international communications including wire, cable, radio, TV and satellite. The FCC was created under the U.S. had already approved the acquisition on the condition that U S West sell Continental cable systems in areas where it provides local phone service. |
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