As a long-time advocate for investors, it pains me to say it, but MCI Inc.'s board of directors ought to tell shareholders who oppose merging with Verizon Communications Inc. to take a hike.
It's true that Qwest Communications International Inc. is offering stockholders more money for MCI than Verizon -- $8.45 billion vs. $6.75 billion -- but merging with Qwest would be one of the dumbest deals in the history of Washington investing.
Qwest Communication's headquarters in Denver looms over MCI's branch offices. Qwest wants to buy MCI for $8.45 billion.
(Jack Dempsey -- AP)
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MCI already is co-champion in the D.C.'s Dumbest Deals competition.
Merging with Qwest could turn out to be an even bigger mistake than MCI's decision to sell out to WorldCom Inc., a blunder matched only by Time Warner Inc. selling itself to Dulles-based America Online Inc.
The same "take the money" mentality that produced those two disastrous mega-mergers is behind the support by many of MCI's biggest stockholders for combining with Qwest.
Unless the bids are raised -- and they may well be -- investors would get stock and cash worth $26 a share if MCI hooks up with Qwest and $20.75 if MCI goes with Verizon.
While the higher price might arguably be in the best interest of shareholders, this is one of the rare instances when the interest of the shareholders and the interest of the company are not the same. It's doubtful that a merger with Qwest would be in the best interest of MCI, its customers, its employees or the Washington region -- even if it is good for the shareholders.
There are shareholders and then there are shareholders.
The vast majority of the investors who own MCI stock are not individual investors. Nor are they the mutual funds, insurance companies or pension funds that make investments on behalf of ordinary Americans.
Most of those folks were wiped out by the bankruptcy reorganization that was necessary when the WorldCom/MCI merger was turned into a train wreck by accounting fraud, flawed business strategies and incompetent management. Those former shareholders are going to get a small part of their money back, thanks to a series of lawsuits (more about that later.)
