Saying that its shareholders have negative feelings about the deal, MCI has rejected a bid of $8.93 billion ($27.50 per share) from Qwest Communications and has instead signed a deal with Verizon Communications for a lesser amount.

However, a group of large MCI shareholders have indicated that they favor the Qwest deal and will vote against the Verizon merger if it is presented to the shareholders for approval.

Qwest is said to be interested in pursuing the deal with MCI by either raising its offer to as high as $9.4 billion (between $28.50 and $29.00 per share) or by taking it’s present offer or a modified offer directly to MCI shareholders.

MCI has said that they are willing to continue negotiations with Qwest if they are willing to raise their bid to $30.00 per share, but Qwest is apparently not willing, for the present, to raise their bid that high.