As expected, VoiceStream shareholders approved proposed merger ag...
As expected, VoiceStream shareholders approved proposed merger agreements with Deutsche Telekom (DT) and DT and Powertel. In separate meeting, Powertel shareholders also approved transactions. Merger agreements still await approvals by FCC and Committee on Foreign Investment in U.S. Separately,…
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VoiceStream and DT submitted ex parte filing to FCC rebutting some of foreign ownership concerns raised by ranking Senate Commerce Committee Democrat Hollings (S.C.) (CD March 8 p8). They cited Hollings’s argument that Sec. 310(a) of Communications Act should apply to merger. Companies said that section applies to radio licenses held directly by foreign govt., but doesn’t bar foreign govt. from obtaining indirect control over common carrier license. (German govt. now owns 59% of DT, but that level will be diluted after merger is completed). Sec. 310(b), which companies said should be applied to their merger, applies when foreign govt. owns interest of more than 25% of capital stock of corporation that controls U.S. subsidiary, filing said. “Indeed, the Commission could not have granted the merger applications filed by AirTouch and Vodafone, or British Telecom and MCI, if Senator Hollings’s interpretation of Sec. 310 were correct,” companies wrote.