For nine months they met secretly in airport conference rooms from Washington to New York City, imagining a mutual future that might never arrive. "We tried not to jump up and down or giggle," says an executive of the moment when they realized their infatuation would be made legit. "It took tremendous personal restraint."
The suitors were Raymond Smith and Ivan Seidenberg, CEOs of telephone gargantuans Bell Atlantic and NYNEX. Their moment came in February as they watched Bill Clinton sign the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which paved the way for last week's $22 billion merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX....
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
