| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 18, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| COVER STORY
Two Titans, Two Gambits CENTRAL STRATEGY AT&T Mike Armstrong is betting $110 billion on cable investments, hoping he can turn the TV wires running into U.S. homes into local calling connections and as a means to offer digital services. MCI WORLDCOM Bernie Ebbers is betting on wireless, not cable. By investing $129 billion to buy Sprint, he is trying to build the leading supplier of long-distance, data, and wireless services to corporate customers. BIGGEST RISK AT&T Technology for voice over cable might not be perfected fast enough for cable investment to pay off before long-distance revenues erode. MCI WORLDCOM Wall Street loves Ebbers for his ability to integrate companies he has taken over. But analysts think he has paid too much for Sprint. That sentiment could lead to a dive in his lofty stock price. MISSING LINK AT&T It lags far behind in data services. By contrast, MCI WorldCom and Sprint own so much Net ''backbone'' capacity that they may be forced to divest some of it. MCI WORLDCOM Ebbers has no proven way to reach the residential market. His options for home service--wireless local access and DSL--suffer from limited deployment and are relatively untested. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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 RELATED ITEMS The Main Event: Bernie vs. Mike COVER IMAGE: Mike vs. Bernie TABLE: Two Titans, Two Gambits What It Will Take to Win TABLE: A Bigger No. 2 TABLE: Bernie's Challenges AT&T: The Problems Keep on Coming CHART: Plenty of Snags Lately TABLE: AT&T's Six Challenges TABLE: Turmoil at the Top Commentary: All These Mergers Are Great, But... ONLINE ORIGINAL: Some Sorry Scores from AT&T's California Testbed ONLINE ORIGINAL: Why These Sprint Shareholders Are Eating Dust INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
