Het Amerikaanse Ministerie van Justitie heeft bekend gemaakt dat het de fusie van telecom giganten MCI WorldCom en Sprint wil tegen houden. Beide bedrijven hebben een groot deel van de Amerikaanse telecommarkt in handen en zouden bij een fusie een erg machtige positie krijgen. Dit is volgens de DOJ nadelig voor de concurrentie in deze markt en zal leiden tot hogere prijzen voor de consument:
The Department of Justice today sued to block the merger of WorldCom Inc. and Sprint Corporation because the deal would reduce competition in many of the nation's most important telecommunications services and would result in higher prices for millions of consumers and businesses. The proposed merger, between two of the three largest U.S. telecommunications companies, is the largest merger challenge by the Justice Department."This merger threatens to undermine the competitive gains achieved since the Department challenged AT&T's monopoly of the telecommunications industry 25 years ago," said Attorney General Janet Reno. "It is critical to our economy that we preserve competition for services that so many of us rely upon in our everyday lives--long distance calls, data network services and internet connections."
"American consumers, businesses, and internet users have received enormous benefits from the competitive telecommunications and internet markets," said Joel I. Klein, Assistant Attorney General of the Department's Antitrust Division. "If WorldCom were allowed to acquire Sprint, large and small businesses and millions of individual consumers would have to pay higher prices and accept lower service quality and less innovation."
The Department's suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeks a permanent injunction to prohibit the merger.
Thanks Flipz voor de link.