Verizon Gives MCI Time for Qwest Talks

Verizon Communications Inc., which has agreed to acquire MCI Inc. for $6.75 billion, said Wednesday that it would grant MCI two weeks to hold additional talks with rival bidder Qwest Communications International Inc.

But Qwest said that it was concerned MCI would not give a thorough review of its revised $8-billion offer and that Qwest had been given limited access to MCI’s financial data.

MCI, the No. 2 long-distance company, spurned Qwest’s bid when it agreed to be bought by Verizon. MCI accepted the lower bid in part because of Verizon’s solid balance sheet and stronger growth potential, people familiar with the matter have said.

Verizon said that though it believed its bid was superior to Qwest’s and would continue to be favored by MCI, it wanted to give MCI room to review Qwest’s updated offer submitted Feb. 24. Several large MCI shareholders have pushed MCI to reconsider the Verizon deal, saying Qwest’s offer proved the Verizon bid was too low.

In a letter to MCI’s board late Wednesday, Qwest Chairman Richard Notebaert said that despite months of talks, Qwest was not given access to MCI’s detailed financial information until Feb. 12, two days before MCI announced it had accepted Verizon’s offer.

“As a result, we question whether our recent proposal truly received an extensive review,” Notebaert said in the letter. “We are also concerned that the process over the next two weeks will simply be process for process’ sake, as opposed to a meaningful evaluation of our offer.”

Shares of MCI, which had already been trading above Verizon’s offer price of $20.75, closed up 9 cents at $23.45 on Nasdaq.