LDDS Communications to buy IDB

LDDS Communications Inc., the nation's fourth-largest long-distance company, agreed yesterday to acquire IDB Communications Group Inc. in a stock swap worth about $700 million.

Bernard J. Ebbers, chief executive of Jackson, Miss.-based LDDS, said the deal "is only a first step" in LDDS' expansion into international business. IDB is a satellite-based phone company with extensive operations abroad.