British Telecommunications Plc and MCI Communications Corp have agreed that Chris Earnshaw from British Telecom should be the first chief executive of their joint venture company, and that it will be headquartered in Washington rather at the Syncordia Corp headquarters in Atlanta: Earnshaw is currently managing director of worldwide networks; the UK phone company and MCI will invest around $1,000m in the joint venture, with BT holding 75%; the deal, under which British Telecom will also take a 20% shareholding in MCI by buying new shares, is still subject to approval by both the European Commission and the US Federal Communications Commission, is not expected to be completed until the first half of next year.
