But antitrust regulators in the United States filed a lawsuit to block the merger, and European officials neared filing suit before WorldCom and Sprint withdrew their bid for overseas approval. Today the two companies formally called off their marriage.
Sprint is a fine company.
Gartner analysts Jay Pultz and David Neil say that having turned down the WorldCom-Sprint deal, regulators will be faced with other deals that will be no more palatable to them. Prolonged delay and uncertainty would not be in the best interest of our shareholders, employees or customers. Much of the opposition to the merger came from rivals in one of those two markets. That would have concentrated too much power in the hands of one player. Although the deal's collapse has been widely expected since the DOJ made its intentions clear, today's move opens wider the possibility that one or even both companies could become merger targets for another giant.