Brussels, 11/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has cleared the proposed acquisition of MCI (formerly WorldCom) by Verizon Communications (“Verizon”), both US companies.
Verizon provides telecommunication services (local, domestic long distance and international voice telephony services and internetworking, wireless, directories services) to residential, small business and some large corporate and government customers in various regions of the US. MCI is a global provider of advanced communication services (business data, Internet and voice services) to businesses and governments. It also sells telecommunication services to consumers in the United States. The deal will impact on markets for global internet connectivity services, global telecommunication services and international voice telephony. The Commission's assessment of the deal showed that this overlap between the activities of Verizon and MCI is very limited and that the combined firm will continue to face several strong and effective competitors. The Commission also examined the vertical effects which result from the combination of Verizon's activities at the local loop level in a number of areas in the US (i.e. the “last mile” connection of a telecommunication network to the end-customer) with MCI's upstream global telecommunication or international voice telephony activities. However, the Commission's investigation showed that the effect of this integration will not materially affect competitors' ability to provide such services.