Is this competition to JDS or potential customer?
B.C. tech firm finds itself in the spotlight
DARK HORSE
Worldwide Fiber's potential attracts Microsoft CFO
PETER KENNEDY
British Columbia Bureau
Friday, December 24, 1999
Vancouver -- Worldwide Fiber Inc., a sleepy company with roots in the Alberta construction industry, has suddenly found itself in the spotlight after naming former Microsoft Corp. chief financial officer Greg Maffei as its new chief executive officer.
Before Mr. Maffei agreed to become CEO at the privately owned Vancouver company, Worldwide Fiber had kept such a low profile that a number of high-tech consultants had never heard of it. "It just seems to have popped out of nowhere."
But after fielding dozens of phone calls from U.S. and Canadian journalists who wanted to know more about the company, Worldwide's 34-year-old chief financial officer Will Walls said the low-profile approach is deliberate.
After raising about $3-billion (U.S.) last year, Worldwide is building fibre-optic networks across North America and into Europe that carry everything from phone calls to Internet data via light moving through glass strands.
"We have not sought out the limelight because we like to stay below the radar screens of our competitors," said Mr. Walls, who was hired just before the company was launched in 1997.
"We like to build our networks as quickly and as quietly as possible," he added.
Industry observers say Worldwide Fiber has stayed below most people's radar screens because the Alberta brothers who run the company like it that way.
With about 420 staff members and $400-million (Canadian) in revenue, Worldwide is a subsidiary of Ledcor Industries -- a Vancouver-based construction company that was launched in 1947 to build access roads to the birthplace of the Alberta oil industry.
Headed by Dave and Cliff Lede, Ledcor is now the second-largest construction company in Canada, participating in the construction of everything from Planet Hollywood restaurants to skyscrapers, and even a Northwest Territories diamond mine.
Their 55-per-cent interest in Ledcor has given them an indirect interest in Worldwide Fiber worth $1-billion. Neither of the brothers was available for an interview yesterday.
Mr. Walls said the company is only telling its story now in anticipation of an initial public offering that is expected to raise at least $700-million.
"Clearly we are the best-kept secret in Canada in the way we have developed ourselves," Mr. Walls said.
The company is now building one of the most advanced high-speed communications links in the world, able to move 1.28 terabits of data per second -- or enough for 20 million simultaneous voice calls.
It includes a 29,000-kilometre North American network as well as 12,000 kilometres of cable across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean from Halifax to Dublin and London and back. In the past year alone, the company has raised $3-billion (U.S.) for those projects by issuing junk bonds and arranging a $345-million private placement with New York investment firms Providence Equity Partners and Goldman Sachs.
But the company plans to go far beyond that by building networks in Europe, South America and Asia. That is where Mr. Maffei fits in.
Mr. Walls said the company has been in discussion with investment bankers over the past year and a half about plans to go public. "It is our intention to do it within the next six months if we can," he said.
One Bay Street analyst said getting Mr. Maffei is a tremendous coup for Worldwide Fiber because he has connections that will help Worldwide achieve its goals.
"Now that they have proved that they can build the networks, Worldwide Fiber has the credibility to be invited into the boardrooms of anyone of North America's top telecommunications firms. What they need is introductions," said a Bay Street analyst who asked not to be named. |
