WASHINGTON-The Department of Justice approved Verizon Communications Inc.’s plans to acquire MCI Inc. and SBC Communications Inc.’s plans to buy AT&T Inc.
The Federal Communications Commission was scheduled to vote late Friday on the Verizon-MCI deal, while the Commission’s review of the SBC-AT&T deal is pending but will likely take place soon. For both deals, the majority of state-level reviews and subsequent approvals have been completed.
Both mergers are expected to close by the end of this year.
“We appreciate the hard work of the Department of Justice staff in bringing this merger to resolution,” said John Thorne, senior vice president and deputy general counsel at Verizon. “The consent decree will result in no disruption to MCI customers. We are eager to begin offering the benefits of this new combination to customers as soon as possible.”
In the Verizon-MCI merger, the DOJ filed a consent decree that included several stipulations. Under the decree, Verizon and MCI will lease unused fiber connections to 356 buildings in several states in Verizon’s footprint along the East Coast. MCI’s fiber will not be affected.
“The Justice Department has a comprehensive view of the state of the communications industry, and its decision reflects a fair and impartial determination that, with these narrowly tailored conditions, the merger of SBC and AT&T will not harm competition,” said James Ellis, senior executive vice president and general counsel at SBC. “We applaud the DOJ staff for conducting such a thorough analysis and for recognizing the competitive nature of today’s marketplace in reaching its decision.”
SBC and AT&T have agreed to provide access to certain buildings in SBC’s operating territory where AT&T has fiber and where the two companies are the only providers with facilities serving those buildings. SBC also announced last week that it planned to use the AT&T brand name for its operations going forward.
