Down to the wire

摘要

"Not the greatest day for corporate governance," says Bruce Berko-witz, the boss of Fairholme Capital Management, which owns around 3.5% of MCI, a floundering telecoms firm that on May 2nd decided to accept a purchase offer from Verizon that is 13% less than a bid by Qwest. "The MCI board," says Leon Coo-perman, the head of Omega Advisors, which owns over 3% of MCI, "cost all the shareholders some money." After four months of bids, counter-bids and vitriol, MCI for a fourth time spurned an offer from Qwest, the latest worth $9.8 billion, in favour of one from Verizon, which had been forced to increase its original offer by 25% to $8.5 billion. Qwest then withdrew its bid, citing a "process that seems to be permanently skewed" against it by MCI, and an "example of that board's failure to accept the offer that maximises shareowner value".