Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel to Get WorldCom Wireless Assets

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 20:25:54 -0400

Nextel to Get WorldCom Wireless Assets
 Mon June 30, 2003 07:59 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nextel Communications Inc. NXTL.O has agreed to acquire the
high-speed Internet wireless assets of bankrupt WorldCom Inc. for $144 million in
cash, besting a bid by BellSouth Corp. BLS.N , according to a court filing made on
Monday.

WorldCom, the No. 2 U.S. long-distance telephone carrier and one of the biggest
movers of Internet data, paid about $1 billion for the wireless assets at the
height of the Internet boom in 1999 through the acquisition of other companies.
WorldCom WCOEQ.PK said in early May that BellSouth, which is a partner in Cingular
Wireless with SBC Communications Inc. SBC.N , had offered the best price of $65
million but that deal was subject to higher and better offers.

Details of Nextel's planned purchase were not immediately available but WorldCom
said it would file the agreement by July 7, a day before a court hearing on the
deal, according to a filing made with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern
District of New York.

A spokesman for Nextel was not immediately available for comment and a spokeswoman
for BellSouth was not immediately available for comment.

The BellSouth transaction included acquiring WorldCom's wireless licenses, network
equipment and leases as well as the assumption of contracts and site and tower
leases.

WorldCom ended up using the licenses to deploy the high-speed wireless Internet
access service in 13 markets, including Minneapolis, Kansas City, Missouri, and
other markets in the southeastern United States.

The company filed for bankruptcy in July 2002 after being rocked by an $11 billion
accounting scandal. WorldCom hopes to emerge from bankruptcy later this year after
shedding most of its $41 billion in debt.

WorldCom has already exited the business of reselling mobile telephone service but
has kept its paging business.
In addition to approval from the bankruptcy court, the Federal Communications
Commission would have to sign off on the transfer of the licenses to Nextel.

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=3015694

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