...ON VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC.'S PLANS TO ACQUIRE MCI INC.
"Given MCI's rapidly shrinking revenues, the transaction will slow Verizon's revenue growth over the foreseeable future."
- Morgan Keegan in an equity research note
"Moody's believes that [Verizon's] purchase of MCI will complement its current business activities and establish it as the number two provider in enterprise data services, a potential growth area."
- Moody's Investors Service in a note putting Verizon's ratings on review for possible downgrade
"Overall the expected synergies for Verizon and MCI should be similar to the synergies of the AT&T and SBC merger and greater than potential synergies of Qwest/MCI due to the location and size of the Verizon customer base."
- ATLANTIC-ACM analyst Aaron Nutt
"A Verizon-MCI merger sets the stage for badly needed facilities-based competition among a group of financially healthy integrated service providers with national reach."
- The Heartland Institute Senior Fellow Steven Titch
"Across a number of product and geographic markets, a Verizon-MCI merger eliminates a great deal more competition than would a Qwest-MCI deal. For example, MCI has a much larger presence in the residential market in Verizon's territory than Qwest's.Verizon is much more likely to meet MCI head-on in the enterprise market than it is likely to meet Qwest."
-Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union in a letter to members of Congress
