TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Peoples Calls Off Merger: Peoples Telephone Co. abandoned its planned $280-million merger with IDB Communications, citing IDB’s low stock price and attempts to renegotiate the deal. IDB’s plan to buy Peoples would have created the nation’s fourth-largest long-distance company, but Peoples said it was highly unlikely that the companies could reach a final agreement. The merger was negotiated based on an IDB stock price of a minimum $16 a share, but it has consistently closed below that, Peoples Chairman Jeffrey Hanft said. Culver City-based IDB is an international telecommunications carrier. Miami-based Peoples owns and operates about 50,000 public, prison and cellular pay telephones in 46 states.