Dial M for merger; BT and MCI are following airlines down the runway to a global free-for-all. (British Telecommunications PLC acquisition of MCI Communications Corp.)(Leaders)(Editorial)

Economist (US), The, November, 1996

British Telecommunications' acquisition of MCI Communications is likely to be the first major merger in the consolidation of telephone companies as deregulation and technological innovation increase competition. Only the strongest and most efficient telephone companies will survive.

AS THEY jetted back and forward across the Atlantic last month, plighting their troth, did the bosses of Britain's BT and America's MCI, two telecoms giants, pause to ponder the parallels between the airlines that flew them and their own industry? If so, they may well have felt a little smug. Airlines, like telephone companies, were once fat monopolies, relying on national and international restrictions to shore up their profits. Now, at least in some markets, both types of firm face stiff...

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