FT has a piece about how Verizon wants to change some terms of its proposed $8.5 billion deal with MCI. It doesn’t want to “be subject to corporate governance principles which would mean Verizon CEO/Chairman Ivan Seidenberg could not keep both gigs. That’s fine but this is the line in the article which is amusing to say the least
> Nine of Verizon’s 11 directors are independent, including Mr Seidenberg.
Maybe english is my second language, but the way I understand it that if you are CEO/Chairman, then you are not independent. Co-Dependent, maybe, but independent?
Incidentally, Richard Breeden, former SEC chairman who was put in charge of overseeing MCI/WorldCon might just be the first guy to lose his job in this mega-merger.
> In its merger agreement, Verizon called for the court to “no longer require” Mr Breeden to serve as a monitor, and to absolve the newly combined company of the governance principles and processes he developed. Mr Breeden played an instrumental role in Verizon clinching a deal with MCI following a drawn-out bidding war with Qwest.
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