News In Brief

By Robert Kilborn and Judy Nichols

July 6, 2000

A new published report, the second in less than a week, suggested that Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG is "poised" for a megamerger. Citing internal company sources, the magazine Focus Money said Deutsche Telekom was close to completing a contract for the takeover of British communications giant Cable & Wireless. The latter is valued at $48.5 billion. Earlier, Deutsche Telekom was reported interested in acquiring Sprint Corp. if Sprint's takeover by WorldCom falls through. A spokes-man refused to comment on the new report except to call it "speculation."

A gap in what was to be the world's third-largest banking merger will be filled by Toyo Trust, the company announced. The Tokyo-based institution said it will join Sanwa Bank and Tokai Bank in a holding company with $778 billion in assets. The latter two said last month they would proceed with merger plans even though a third partner, Asahi Bank, decided to pull out and continue independent operations.