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The acquisition of MCI reflects a marked and swift change sweeping the telecommunications industry, brought largely by shifts in technology. The lawyers said the antitrust analysis might be slightly more complicated because the deal is likely to be examined not just on its own but within the context of the entire industry, which is quickly being redrawn. While Verizon's agreement to acquire MCI will face regulatory scrutiny, legal experts have suggested the deal will probably be approved. These deals, plus the one by SBC and AT&T, analysts said, were partly a response to the re-election of President Bush, whose administration has imposed relatively few restrictions on the merging of companies. Less than a month later, Alltel, a regional cellular provider, said it would buy Western Wireless. In December, Sprint and Nextel agreed to merge to form the third-largest wireless company. Mergers in the telecommunications industry have revived in the last few months after several years of declining sales, bankruptcies and accounting scandals. Spokesmen for Verizon, MCI and Qwest all declined to comment. Still, the lure of MCI was considered more complicated than the acquisition of AT&T, in part because of the stigma of its recent bankruptcy. The deal reflects Verizon's interest in growing its present business of selling telephone and data services to corporate customers, an operation said by industry analysts to be worth about $250 billion a year.

Still, MCI's board chose to accept Verizon's lower bid because it had concerns about Qwest's ability to finance the transaction and about the long-term value of Qwest's stock, the executives said. Late Friday night, Qwest submitted a final bid worth $7.3 billion, the executives said.

Qwest had submitted several ever-increasing bids for MCI over the past week, the executives said.

Indeed, Verizon defeated its much smaller rival, Qwest Communications, in an 11th hour takeover skirmish over the weekend for control of MCI. That left MCI one of the last remaining major telecommunications companies up for grabs. MCI became the subject of a torrent of takeover interest among its rivals in recent weeks after SBC, the second-largest regional phone company in the nation, agreed to acquire AT&T for $15 billion.