>AS I'm afraid market will sell off big time when it opens
Why would you be afraid since you made a fortune on EXDS communications?
Betcha you'd suck any di$k for 5c on the dollar.
Btw
You talk too much!
>Mercury News
Bill Krause had one hell of a Labor Day weekend.
The former chief of 3Com and Storm Technology had started out the long weekend still enjoying retired life. A few days later, Krause found himself the newly dubbed chairman and chief executive of a troubled $800 million company.
``I was literally drafted,'' says Krause, who last Tuesday took the helm of Santa Clara Web-hosting firm Exodus.
Krause, who joined the company's board just over a year ago, says his fellow directors recruited him to replace Ellen Hancock, a longtime acquaintance who left the firm in what both sides call a ``mutual decision.''
Some analysts have assumed Exodus put a board member in the top job as a prelude to liquidating the company, an idea Krause dismisses.
``They didn't do their homework,'' Krause says. ``I'm not a liquidator, I'm an entrepreneur. I build companies.''
After 14 years at Hewlett-Packard, Krause helped build 3Com from a start-up to a $600 million public company in the 1980s. Krause's next venture, computer scanner maker Storm, was less successful, ultimately filing for bankruptcy.
That may lead some to question Krause's management chops, but he insists he was ``a better leader at Storm than I was at the more successful companies. It's much harder to lead in a difficult situation.''
He'll need those learning experiences to turn around Exodus, which ruled the Web-hosting space during the dot-com boom but lately has been sucking wind under a mound of debt.
Kanwal Rekhi, who put up the initial seed money for Exodus and used to serve on its board, says returning the company to health ``is going to take heavy lifting until the whole company is restructured.''
Rekhi, like other observers, thinks Exodus will have to go through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy to purge its roughly $3 billion in debt. That will be painful for shareholders and bondholders. Rekhi, who's still a major Exodus shareholder, says Krause's challenge will be keeping those investors on board.
Krause declines to talk about a possible bankruptcy. But he says job one is improving the company's financial footing, and he admits he's not sure if that might mean additional job cuts. (Exodus has axed more than 1,000 workers since May, prompting puns about the company's name).
Krause also says he plans to reduce overhead and pare back the company's glut of real estate.
On Friday, Krause was simply trying to navigate the company cafeteria. ``There must be a deli bar around here somewhere,'' he muttered. A helpful employee finally led him to the cold cuts.
Munching a sandwich, Krause called his decision to take the helm ``sort of the ultimate test of the fiduciary responsibility of an investor.'' Time will tell if he gets a passing grade. |
