Hi Ho, A-Merging We Will Go
In a two-column lead, the New York Times announces the Sprint-MCI Worldcom merger, which was hinted at in the papers
yesterday. All the papers say the $115 billion deal (the NYT says $108
billion) will be announced today--barring an unlikely last-minute offer from
Bell South--and will likely be approved by the FCC. The Washington Post and
Los Angeles Times
front this story but lead with the largest-ever successful claim against an insurance
company--$456 million, which the State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
must pay to millions of clients whose cars lost value when State Farm ordered
their mechanics to make repairs with low-cost, generic parts. (It works out to
about $100 for each of the policyholders in the "class" of plaintiffs taking
action against State Farm.) The plaintiffs argued that the parts were
sub-standard, while the insurance industry and some consumer groups argued that
using generic parts keeps down premiums. State Farm insures one out of five
cars in the U.S., notes the LAT , and the verdict will almost certainly
lead to higher industrywide premiums within a few years. If the Illinois county
court awards fraud damages, the bill for the company could reach $4
billion.
The new company formed by MCI-Worldcom and Sprint will control about 30
percent of the U.S. long-distance market--second to AT&T's 45 percent--and
at $200 billion will be the biggest telecom in the world, says the Wall Street Journal . The merger
marks the increasing importance of wireless networks and data-voice
integration. (MCI has a large data network, Sprint a large wireless one.) As
usual, the papers spice the abstract financial story with corporate intrigue:
The code names for Sprint and MCI were "Snow" and "White," the Journal
explains--thus the deal became known as "Snow White." (Oooh.) When the "upstart
Mississippi" telecom Bell-South made an offer, the company was called "Project
Blue." All the stories are sourced to anonymous persons "close to the
deal."
The WSJ investigates the ban on cell-phone use during commercial
flights and finds that it is not supported by any empirical evidence. The ban,
the Journal notes, is actually an FCC rule, not an FAA rule, designed
to limit interference with ground-to-ground cell communication. (Air-to-ground
signals sometimes override those on the ground.) A 1996 study commissioned by
the FAA analyzed a decade's worth of inflight instrument-malfunction reports
and could not trace a single incident to a cell phone. Both Airbus and Boeing
have bombarded their planes with cell waves and failed to record any
interference; Boeing still recommends that phones not be used in the air--but
to prevent electronic interference similar to (though slightly stronger than)
that of a laptop or CD player. Meanwhile, passengers and pilots on corporate
jets use cell phones thousands of times a day without incident, while
commercial air passengers must use airline-installed "Airfones" at rates 20
times that of individual cell-phones. The airlines are reported to get 15
percent of this take.
The NYT reports that Microsoft and MIT have announced a joint
venture to develop technology for online teaching. Microsoft will initially
invest $25 million over five years. What is unusual about this venture in
corporate-sponsored R&D, explains the Times , is that this
partnership serves the core interests of the university more than those of the
corporation. Dismissive scientists are already referring to the new
company--called I-Campus--as "MSMIT."
On the Post editorial page, historian Philip Zelikow defends George W. Bush's refusal to denounce Pat Buchanan,
as other GOP candidates have done. Zelikow compares Bush's stance to that of
Dwight Eisenhower, who in 1952 let his work in NATO speak for itself rather
than attack isolationist Robert Taft. "The shouting about Patrick Buchanan's
defense of American isolationism in World War II," Zelikow writes, "has
deflected attention from the real task: Defeat the ideas, not the man." (Click
here to
read
Slate
's "Ballot Box" on Buchanan and the
GOP.)
In the Journal , mathematician John Allen Paulos notes that no
amount of technological advance will repeal Murphy's Law--hence last week's
loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter, which crashed after being fed data in pounds
rather than newtons. Increasingly complex human systems, Paulos writes, will
never escape the clutches of foolish humans. "To the contrary, it may be that
the more complex a gadget is, the more links with quite fallible people are
necessary." (To read Paulos' June dispatches in
Slate
's "Breakfast Table," click
here.)
How strong is the nation's economy? So strong, reports the LAT ,
that many corporate recruiters are doing something unprecedented: hiring
liberal-arts graduates. "I don't want to say [graduating liberal-arts students]
are wined and dined," says an Ursinus guidance counselor, "but they are taken
care of. They come with presents! Day planners and stress balls and fun things
that keep the student with that employer's name in mind." Today's Papers still
has his
Slate
baseball cap around here somewhere
...
