http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005/02/social-insecurity-phony-pension-crisis.html
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Feb. 15--Verizon Communications Inc. said yesterday that it will buy MCI Corp. for roughly $6.7 billion, mating the nation's largest local telephone company and No. 2 long-distance provider in a deal demonstrating the depth of change in what was once a staid, regulated industry.
In accepting Verizon's bid, the Ashburn, Va.-based MCI rejected a $7.3 billion offer from Qwest Communications International Inc., the dominant local phone provider in the Western U.S. but a firm hampered by its high debt load.
"It's the right deal at the right time," said Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon's chairman and chief executive officer.
The new giant -- set up now to compete with SBC Communications and AT&T, which announced their merger last month -- will resemble more of a national integrated services provider than a regional phone company, able to deliver wireless communications, a strong Internet backbone and improved high-speed data transmission.
Some consumer advocates said the deal could lead to higher prices and fewer competitive options for basic phone services as the old "Ma Bell" regional phone companies reassemble their monopolistic parts. Others in the industry said it will let the top companies offer convenient multi-service packages that buyers of technology services have been demanding for a decade.
The two companies said they would eliminate about 7,000 jobs in the merger, which could have broad implications for Maryland. Verizon says more than 10,000 of its more than 200,000 employees work in Maryland. The company has made Laurel the U.S. headquarters for its wireless-services unit, one of its fastest-growing businesses. And MCI has approximately 1,000 people working in Maryland, including 350 at a Hunt Valley call center and another 400 in a facility in Beltsville.
Spokespersons for both companies yesterday declined to speculate on how job cuts, or other cost-reduction measures, will be felt locally.
http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=128113
===== ******************************************************************* Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work!" they ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wages system!" http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/value-price-profit/ch03.htm#c14 Karl Marx http://profiles.yahoo.com/swillsqueal
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