WorldCom, MCI Merger Is Completed

WorldCom Inc. closed its $40-billion acquisition of MCI Communications Corp. after gaining final regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission. The plan, first announced in November, combines the No. 2 and No. 4 long-distance companies in the U.S. to create a new company called MCI WorldCom, with revenue of more than $30 billion and operations in more than 65 countries. The FCC said it will monitor progress on commitments WorldCom and MCI made not to abandon the residential long-distance market, to augment efforts in the residential local market and to offer residential customers a total package that includes wireless, international and Internet services. FCC Chairman William Kennard said, however, that future mergers in the long-distance industry of similar size should be judged differently. “Once this merger is consummated, the industry will once again be poised just a merger away from undue concentration,” he said. Washington-based MCI also completed the $1.75-billion sale of its Internet assets to Britain’s Cable & Wireless, a deal it agreed to in order to win U.S. and European regulatory approval for the WorldCom merger. Jackson, Miss.-based WorldCom shares rose 69 cents to close at $47.75 on Nasdaq.