NEW YORK - Telecom operator Verizon announced Saturday it had reached an agreement to buy Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's 13.7 percent stake in MCI, as it struggles with rival Qwest Communications to take over MCI.
Verizon said it paid some 1.1 billion dollars for the shares, after Slim both pushed Verizon and Qwest Communications to shore up their offers for the company.
On Wednesday, MCI had rejected a new 8.9 billion dollar takeover bid by Qwest in favor of a lower 7.5 billion dollar offer from Verizon.
By Friday, Qwest announced that a majority of MCI shareholders now favored its offer over Verizon's.
Several large MCI shareholders have threatened to vote against the merger with Verizon, and Qwest has been soliciting their support, hinting at the possibility of a hostile-takeover attempt.
Earlier this week, Qwest instructed its proxy solicitor, The Altman Group, to canvass MCI shareholders.
Verizon has offered to buy Slim's 43.4 million shares in MCI at a unit price of 25.72 dollars per share.
The offer amounts to a bonus of 11 percent compared with the 23.50 dollar per share Verizon had offered to all of MCI's shareholders when it valued the company at 7.5 billion dollars.
04/09/2005 20:42 GMT