WASHINGTON-The European Commission last week gave conditional approval to the proposed merger between MCI Communications Corp. and WorldCom Inc.
The approval is subject to the divestiture of MCI’s Internet services business, which overlapped with WorldCom’s to give the combined entity about 50-percent market share. The companies in May announced a plan to sell MCI’s entire Internet service backbone to Cable & Wireless for $625 million cash.
The proposed merger still must receive the approval of the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission.
MCI said it still expects the merger to close this summer. When the deal was announced in November, the companies said it would close in six to nine months.
