US STUDY DISCUSSES DROPPED COMSAT-CONTEL MERGER
  A congressional study today said the
  proposed, but now apparently abandoned, merger of the
  Communications Satellite Corp &lt;CQ> and Contel Corp &lt;CTC>
  would technically be legal but could violate the spirt of the
  law setting up COMSAT.
      Two weeks ago before the study was completed, Contel
  announced it would seek to terminate the proposed merger.
      The study by the non partisan Congressional Research
  Service (CRS) said "the proposed merger appears to comply,
  technically, with the mandates or letter of statutes, if may
  nevertheless violate the spirit of the law."
      Comsat, created by a 1962 act of Congress, and Contel, a
  corporation of local telephone and communications firms, filed
  with the Federal Communications Commission last November 3 an
  application for merger. Several firms had protested the
  proposed merger.
      In an analysis of the law, the research service issued
  several critical comments about the structure of the new firm
  and said apparent domination by Contel of a restructured COMSAT
  would have broken the spirit of the law setting up
  COMSAT.COMSAT is the U.S. arm of Intelstat, the international
  satellite communications firm. 
   
  Reuter...^M
  

