Metromedia Fiber up on expansion plan
High-speed networker moving into London, Amsterdam
By Jeffry Bartash, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:00 PM ET Jun 16, 1999
NewsWatch
Earnings Surprises
WHITE PLAINS, NY (CBS.MW) -- Shares of Metromedia Fiber
Network swelled more than 7 percent Wednesday after it said it will build
high-speed fiber optic networks in the key European gateways of London
and Amsterdam.
The company, which
operates nearly
400,000 miles of fiber
optic lines on the East
Coast and in Chicago,
will nearly double its
planned amount of
capacity in Europe with
the latest moves.
It will lay down 32,400 fiber kilometers in London and 34,560 in
Amsterdam. All together, Metromedia now plans to build 166,000 fiber
kilometers in Europe. It's also building networks in Paris and several
major German metropolitan areas. See press release.
"The data communications and Internet market in Europe is expected to
double by the year 2002," said Howard Finkelstein, president of
Metromedia Fiber. "London and Amsterdam, the newest elements of our
international expansion strategy, enable us to capture an increasing portion
of this market."
Shares of Metromedia (MFNX: news, msgs), whose stock has surged
10-fold over the past year, jumped 2 3/4 to 40 1/2 in recent trading on
volume of 750,000.
Metromedia is aiming to lure lucrative business customers in the major
cities of Europe to its network for access to Internet-based forms of
traffic, including data, voice and video. The company offers "virtually"
unlimited amounts of "bandwidth" at a fixed price.
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