MCI trims ranks in face of merger

In what it is calling a minor realignment, MCI Communications Corp. announced last week that 1200 of its employees will lose their jobs over the next two months.

The cuts will come from the business sales and services division and network services division, said a spokesman at the Washington-based company. He stressed that not all the employees terminated-about 2% of the 55,000-member work force-will actually be leaving the company.

"Our first priority is to find many of them employment within the company," he said. "They know the business, they know the industry, they know MCI and we know them. We want to keep as many of them as possible.

MCI has made other "periodic adjustments" in its work force, which allow the company to keep up with the industry's rapid changes, the spokesman said. During the fourth quarter of last year, 1000 jobs were quietly cut. Yet the local calling services division has more than 100 jobs available, and some employees in this latest round of cuts could end up there, he said.

The job cutting comes as MCI awaits U.S. approval of its proposed merger with BT. Generally, such deals create jobs.

The World Wide Web is becoming increasingly crowded with surfers-and not all are there for fun. New users, primarily from countries outside the United States, will drive Web growth, creating a six- to seven-fold increase in the number of hours the Web is accessed between 1996 and 2000, according to International Data Corp. This growth will be accompanied by a jump in the number of users who buy and sell goods and services on the Web, the IDC report states. The percentage of shopping Web users in the U.S. is expected to grow from 29% in December 1995 to 45% in 2000, and from 24% to 28% when international users are included, the report says. "We were surprised to find there was so much commerce going on," said John Gantz, IDC senior vice president. About two-thirds of the Web transactions in 2000 are expected to be business-to-business deals such as ordering supplies, electronic data interchange and using software to ship packages.-SG

Telephony's Jan. 6 cover story incorrectly listed the headquarters of Teletutor. The company is in Portsmouth, N.H. Telephony regrets the error.