Whelp, wouldn't ya know, the moment I start bitchin' about it, the deal goes through. Heh... finally. Anybody feels like givin' me $8.5bn, I'll send along my PayPal address....

"MCI said it accepted Verizon's lower price because its large business customers had threatened to defect if it was sold to Qwest. Qwest did not go quietly, accusing MCI of tilting the bidding war in Verizon's favor and shortchanging shareholders."