\ WWTC2-1 \ Originally uploaded by Sean Mountcastle.

Yesterday I attended the FIA/GT WTCC in Monza, Italy. It was great fun and when I return to the US, I’ll post better pictures to flickr. Until then, I’ve posted pictures from my Nokia 3650 and linked to several videos below. Enjoy.

• WTCC-1.3gp
• WTCC-2.3gp
• WTCC-3.3gp
• WTCC-4.3gp
• WTCC-5.3gp
• WTCC-6.3gp
• WTCC-7.3gp
• WTCC-8.3gp
• WTCC-9.3gp
• WTCC-10.3gp

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I’m leaving for the airport to go to Milan. It will be nice to see my colleagues in the Monza office since it’s been almost two years since I last visited. I’ll try to post pictures to flickr during the trip.

Well, it looks like this sordid mess is finally over: MCI Accepts Revised Proposal From Verizon. Though I think that looking back on this it would’ve been much smarter for VZ to allow Qwest to buy MCI and simply wait to purchase the assets out of bankruptcy. I predict that this acquisition will not be accretive for VZ.

\ Financial District at Sunset III \ Originally uploaded by avidmarxist. I’m off to New York for Easter (Long Island, actually). No posts over the weekend due to lack of internet access. \

Will this madness never end? I’m sick of the fight over MCI already. MCI is right in my backyard and I’m sure there are a lot of good people working there, but the company is still in shambles. They lost $32M in the most recent quarter, Capellas doesn’t appear to have a compelling story for where MCI is headed and seems to want to wash his hands of the mess by cashing out. Though, I suppose if that were really the case, he’d take the Qwest offer since it’s materially higher.

I’m surprised that Qwest is still fighting for MCI, they obviously want the $5B cash which comes with the acquisition (I guess they’ll figure out some creative way of dealing with almost $5B in debt), but whoever ends up with MCI will be in for a real headache. Even MCI’s chief strategist acknowledges that they are running out of time.

I enjoyed Om’s comparison of Seidenberg and Notebaert to Grumpy Old Men, I think it’s apt. Though at least Lemmon and Matthau were fighting over Ann Margret, not some failing, non-prize of a company. The best thing for VZ and Q shareholders would be for both companies to walk away and leave MCIP to sort out its own problems.