Hard to say. It seems that Ivan *really* wants this one.
The Bell Atlantic/Nynex merger (painful as it was) actually made sense and was the right thing to do. Kudos to Ray Smith (former Chairman & CEO) for having the vision to see the need and "make it so".
The Bell Atlantic/GTE merger is a whole 'nuther kettle of fish.
Ivan wanted to "one up" Ray. It certainly was a bigger merger but as a esult of the *HUGE* "negative dowry" (over $50 Billion) that GTE brought to the altar, the combined company went from one of the best debt to equity ratios to one of the worst. At the time of the merger the dot com boom hadn't gone bust yet and the cash flow was probably assumed to be strong enough to cover the debt service.
Boom economy goes bust and the cash flow dries up but the debt, which up to this point was the 800lb gorilla in the room but was a
*manageable* 800lb gorilla, well the debt becomes an albatross and starts sinking the ship.Very stringent cost containment ensues and the debt starts getting paid down. To their credit, *A LOT* has been paid down. But the stock price is still lagging. As an employee, I still have worthless stock options issued to me as part of the last contract negotiations.
The MCI deal does make some sense. Regardless of my employment status, I believe that MCI will be better off long term by going with Verizon. Qwest just doesn't have the wherewithall to keep the combined operation moving forward as a going concern.
John P. Dearing A+, Network+, Server+ To reply: Just drop "YOURPANTS" in my address! 8-)