Frontier Corp

Global Crossing Ltd. on Monday said it hired Merrill Lynch & Co. and Chase Securities Inc. to examine options for its local telephone operations, acquired when it bought Frontier Corp. last fall. Half of the unit's 1.08 million phone lines are in the Rochester, N.Y., area, and the remainder are spread across 13 states. Global Crossing said it could sell the properties and invest in higher growth opportunities, such as network expansion, sales and new products.

Global corporate marriages reached $1.5 trillion in the first half, the best six months on record, helped by the largest amount of hostile bids ever. More than half the transactions announced worldwide, or $829.1 billion, came in the second quarter, the second-best three months ever. About $169 billion worth, or 20% of those, came from unwelcome suitors. Several of the largest were unfriendly. AT&T Corp. won MediaOne Group Inc. with a $63.1-billion bid that topped Comcast Corp.

Two Los Angeles-area businessmen and a San Diego man were charged with illegally disposing, storing and transporting toxic lead wastes along the U.S.-Mexico border. Arrested Tuesday were brothers Donald and Ed Huseman of Palos Verdes, who own and operate Keelco Anodes Inc. of Wilmington. Jose Kahn, 82, of San Diego, who owns and operates New Frontier Trading Corp., also was named in a 29-count felony complaint filed in Los Angeles. Kahn was asked by authorities to surrender.

Fiber Optek Interconnect Corp., a closely held telecommunications company with $8 million in annual sales, said it may bid for Global Crossing Ltd., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Jan. 28. Michael Pascazi, president of the Wappingers Falls, N.Y., company, wouldn't say how his firm would raise the more than $750million it probably would need. Global Crossing, which is talking to about 40 parties about potential bids for its fiber-optic network assets, declined to comment.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned an FCC regulation requiring phone companies to obtain customer permission before using data, for marketing purposes, on how customers use their phone service. The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2 to 1 that the Federal Communications Commission violated the 1st Amendment when it adopted the regulation last year.

Qwest Communications International Inc. is close to an agreement to buy local phone company US West Inc. for $40.5 billion, a person familiar with the negotiations said. Global Crossing Ltd., a rival bidder for Denver-based US West, is expected to buy long-distance carrier Frontier Corp. for $12.9 billion, the source said. The transactions would end a monthlong bidding contest between Qwest and Global Crossing for the two companies.

A group of former top executives of Frontier Corp. unveiled plans Wednesday to bid for the U.S. portion of Global Crossing Ltd.'s communications network. The group is led by Anthony J. Cassara, who was president of the carrier business at Frontier and then at Global Crossing after it acquired Frontier. Cassara has run his own telecommunications consulting group since leaving Global Crossing nearly two years ago.

An Ohio firm is seeking federal funds to build a $400-million synthetic fuel plant that would use the state's high-sulfur coal to produce liquid fuel, but company officials say the idea is only in the planning stages. "A lot of conditions have not been met," said E. S. Cowan, chairman and chief executive officer of Frontier Energy Corp. of Willoughby. "It's premature yet to talk about it."

When Global Crossing Chief Executive Robert Annunziata abruptly left the telecommunications firm a few weeks ago, sources said he was departing with a "generous" severance package. They weren't kidding. Annunziata received more than $160 million in total compensation for 1999, including his salary, bonuses, severance and gains on millions of options for company stock, according to a financial filing made public Friday.

Telecommunications upstart Global Crossing is in talks to acquire Baby Bell US West Inc. in a stock deal that could be announced as soon as Monday, according to sources close to the deal. If completed, the merger would marry Global Crossing's growing international fiber network with the far-flung local and wireless phone and Internet businesses of US West, which serves mostly rural regions in 14 Western and Midwestern states.