Fergie's Tech Blog

Breaking: FCC Commissioner Won't Break Deadlock Over AT&T-BellSouth Deal

Anne Broache writes on C|Net News:

The bearer of the potentially tie-breaking vote on a proposed merger between AT&T and BellSouth said Monday that ethics considerations prohibit him from participating.

The decision by Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell, a Republican sworn in earlier this year, is consistent with his earlier inclination to recuse himself from a decision on whether to approve the deal, now valued at more than $80 billion. He had declined to participate because immediately prior to joining the FCC, he spent seven years as an executive with the trade association Comptel, which lobbies for competitors of the Bell telephone companies.

posted by Fergie @ 12/18/2006 03:31:00 PM