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On the one hand, I agree with you about the strategic missteps. In hindsight, the fork in the road was the MCI deal. The strategic value in 1997 going forward was increase data,internet, wireless, and int'l while decreasing emphasis on LD. MCI yielded the opposite. The road they took with MCI ultimately pushed them to FON.
On the other hand, if WCOM had bought EXDS or Frontier or ICGX for their data center business in 1997 and then, with a more valuable share currency, rolled up VOD and Airtouch in late '98, the share price would be significantly higher today, by order of magnitude. Hindsight is 20:20 but, these guys are paid to have the best vision and they failed at that.
So now they are looping back to that 1997 fork in the road. It looks as though they are trying to undo it to some extent and substitute what hindsight indicates they should have done the first time around: take the data/internet/wireless/int'l fork.
Is it too late? Well, it may be too late to make up where they would be if they had got it right the first time around but, I think it is the right direction still. Because of their infrastructure it is a matter of better late than never. |
