WSJ.com - How Rivals' Long Campaign Against MCI Gained Traction

WSJ.com - How Rivals' Long Campaign Against MCI Gained Traction: "The campaign against MCI amounts to an extraordinary effort by three competitors -- Verizon, AT&T and SBC -- to drive a rival out of business through federal action. Companies have ganged up on weaker rivals before; for instance, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines and AMR Corp.'s American Airlines last year successfully lobbied the government not to grant loan guarantees sought by UAL Corp., which then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. But the move on MCI is unusual in the expense and trouble MCI's adversaries have gone to.
'Barr was very clear that his mission was to impose the corporate death penalty on MCI,' says Mark Neporent, co-head of the MCI creditors committee.
The fate of MCI, with its 55,000 employees, is central to the telecommunications marketplace. Providing everything from simple phone service to encrypted transport for top-secret government data, MCI has for 30 years been a fearsome competitor for both AT&T and the large Bell companies."