Where does the alliance between British Telecommunications Plc and MCI Communications Corp leave the latter’s 25% stake in Infonet Services Corp, the El Segundo, California-headquartered global data network services operator, we wondered when the alliance was announced. The answer is nowhere: with ownership of what used to be Tymnet, British Telecom does not need an interest in a rival, and MCI has sold its stake to the other partners in what used to be the bureau and networking services arm of Computer Sciences Corp. The other shareholders have divided the MCI stake pro rata among themselves, so that Deutsche Bundespost Telekom and France Telecom’s Transpac SA end up as joint largest shareholders with about 21.6% apiece, Belgacom, PTT Telecom Nederland BV, Singapore Telecom International Ltd, Telia International AB, the Swiss PTT, Telstra Corp Ltd and Telefonica Internacional SA each have 7.2%. Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co’s stake rises to about 6.8% – rounding means that the stakes add up to 100.4%. No word on the price MCI got for its holding: it originally paid $27.5m for it. Infonet’s international value-added network services are claimed currently to be used by 24% of the world’s top 1,000 multinationals and at over 10,000 user sites worldwide..pl 73
