Bill > S1756

This bill amends existing Massachusetts law to regulate the sale of telephone transmission lines by corporations organized for transmitting intelligence by electricity or telephone. It allows a "vendor corporation" (the seller) to sell or transfer its property, including lines on public ways or elsewhere, to a "vendee corporation" (the buyer) organized for a similar purpose, provided the buyer owns a majority of the seller's stock. This sale requires a vote from stockholders owning at least two-thirds of the seller's capital stock at a properly called meeting. Crucially, any sale of telephone transmission lines must include the transfer of *all* such lines owned by the seller within the Commonwealth. Furthermore, if the buyer is a corporation from another state (a foreign corporation), it must already be engaged in interstate commerce within Massachusetts and have been doing so for at least twenty years immediately before the sale.