The MCI sweepstakes soap opera took yet another twist this past Thursday (March 3rd), when Carlos Slim Helu (the richest man in Latin America, owner of Telmex and America Movil, and MCI's largest shareholder with a 13.7% stake) announced his opposition to the deal with Verizon.  On the other hand, he also called Qwest's offer "insufficient". Thus far, at least 26% of MCI's shareholders have voiced their opposition to the most recent offer that Verizon has put on the table.

No wonder Slim is ranked #17 at Forbes' list famous "World's Richest People" ranking.  Many believe he invested nearly $300 million in WorldCom bonds, after the IXC went into bankruptcy protection.  Those bonds were later converted into almost 43 million shares once MCI was listed on the Nasdaq, which led to his holding 13.7% of the company stock.  Another investment that made him money recently is Global Crossing.

Although Verizon's offer ($6.75 billion) is considered to be right at the fair value of MCI, Qwest's $8 billion offer is slightly better.  A further increase in Verizon's offer will definitely be gravy for MCI shareholders, but the size of the deal is small enough that a higher offer would only entail a modest decrease in the consensus Wall Street valuation of Verizon stock.