Cable & Wireless to benefit from MCI Internet sell-off

NEWS Cable & Wireless (C&W) looks set to gain MCI's entire Internet business following reports this morning that it is in exclusive talks with the US telco. The deal is estimated to be worth as much as $3.5bn (£2.2bn) and could be clinched as early as this week. C&W has bought only MCI's wholesale Internet backbone services until now, but Karl Van Miert, EU competition commissioner, indicated last week that the US giant would need to sell off its entire Internet services business to get approval for its acquisition by WorldCom. The deal would put C&W in a strong position to enter the US corporate and residential market. The EU is expected to announce approval of the WorldCom-MCI merger on 8 July, after MCI has signed an outline agreement with C&W.