MCI hotting up

First off, thanks to all you FOCEs for your patience during today's posting drought. I took a Cranky "Personal Day" this morning, and a Cranky Nap this afternoon. Now to make up for lost time:

Big news today on the continuing MCI saga. Yesterday it looked like there was a chance Qwest would not go gently in that good night of failed buyout attempts. Now we know for certain (Reuters via CNN).

And to judge by the analyst and investor quotes in that article, Qwest might just win (assuming it can mount its expensive proxy fight, in which it would bypass MCI's managers and go directly to shareholders for a vote on its merger proposal).

Even if, as I wrote yesterday, I'm skeptical about the virtues of a Qwest bid in the long term, it's not so surprising that the shareholders would jump at it. It is, after all, a big boon for them.

Be that as it may, the real significance of this story lies in its suggestion that we could be in for some entertaining telecom news as spring progresses.