May 24, 2002

Sprint Resilient After Collapse Of WorldCom Deal

When Sprint Corp.'s merger with WorldCom Inc. was blocked by regulators in the summer of 2000, Sprint chief executive William T. Esrey was angry and frustrated that his $129 billion deal had been derailed by bureaucrats. "If those were the issues that would have overwhelmed the new company, then we are certainly better off," Esrey said in an interview.

Instead of becoming entangled in WorldCom's swirl of financial and ethical controversies, Sprint, the nation's third-largest long-distance company, has emerged in the last few months as an industry standout. Certainly, it has its problems, including more than $23 billion in debt and rapidly eroding long-distance revenue. But amid the turmoil of the telecommunications business, analysts say, Sprint is proving to be resilient. (full story)

My spin:Sometimes we fight so hard for seemingly "great" opportunities, but at times those deals are what may sink us if they had worked!

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