TALK is ready to run. Time to get a little back IMO.
Currently, Talk.com serves customers in the nine southern states
served by BellSouth, as well as New York and Pennsylvania, said
President Baritz, and the company is the sixth-largest domestic
long distance company in terms of subscribers and the fastest
growing local provider.
Baritz said Talk.com begins service in Texas on Monday, and will
start in California "imminently." In the first quarter of next year, the
company will begin servicing Michigan, Illinois and Oklahoma, he
said.
After the first quarter, Baritz said, Talk.com will expand on demand
with the eventual goal of service available to 80% of the U.S.
population by the end of 2001. He compared the expansion after
the first quarter to a football team's offense looking for holes in
defensive coverage to advance the ball toward the goal line.
To be clear, he said, "We run the company for the benefit of its
shareholders," noting he believes he is the largest individual
shareholder.
"We will gain the attention of Wall Street," he said, and also the
attention of larger competitors.
The current low valuation of the stock, as well as even higher
ones, does beg the question of takeover bids, he said.
Management has no plans to sell the company and is not in talks
to sell, he said, adding that as a public concern he believes
Talk.com would make public that type of information if it were to
pass.
One way or the other, "either I'm going to win, or someone else is"
going to buy Talk.com and win, said Baritz. For shareholders it's a
"win-win" situation, he said, and one need only look to the
economic model, and the 40% margins generated on UNE-P, to
see this is the case.
-By K. Maxwell Murphy, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5173
maxwell.murphy@dowjones.com |
