Nov. 17, 2003 -- MCI said today that it had succeeded in its tender offer for Digex Inc., which will now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the former WorldCom.
MCI said that 19.11 million shares were tendered in response to its revised $1 a share offer for Digex, representing 76.3 percent of commons hares. That exceeded the 74.3 percent minimum set by MCI, which says it "intends to complete the merger as soon as practicable."
MCI owns a controlling stake in Digex, which wasn't included in the MCI/WorldCom bankruptcy filing but placed itself for sale late last year. MCI initially offered 80 cents a share, and Lane Berry, the investment advisers for Digex' board, recommended that the company accept.
But several major shareholders, David J. Greene & Company LLC and JMB Capital Partners, held out for a higher offer. On Oct. 24 MCI raised its bid to $1 and both Green and JMB agreed to tender their stakes, which amounted to 7.1 million shares.
Digex is a leading provider of enterprise hosting services. Digex customers, from Fortune 1000 companies to leading Internet-based businesses, leverage Digex's trusted infrastructure and advanced services to successfully deploy business-critical and mission-critical Web sites, enterprise applications and Web Services on the Internet.