e-finance: Falling star PCCW and its chief executive hammered by the dot.com bust
The Guardian - United Kingdom, May 18, 2001
BY JOHN CASSY
Richard Li, right, the falling star of the Far East new media establishment, yesterday admitted that he may look for a new man to run his internet and telecoms firm Pacific Century CyberWorks following a series of personal setbacks.
Mr Li, the 34-year-old son of Hong Kong billionaire real estate magnate Li Ka-shing, was responding to reports that he was preparing to relinquish his day to day control of the business to concentrate on group strategy.
"I will consider [appointing a chief executive] after the next full-year results announcement," Mr Li, PCCW's chief executive and chairman, said. "But this is a big 'if'. It has to be the right person. This is a precious company to me. I would not just stuff any CEO in."
Mr Li, Asia's highest profile dot.com entrepreneurs, last year came to the attention of stock markets around the world by launching a series of raids telecoms firms.
His biggest triumph was beating Rupert Murdoch and Singapore Telecom to a Dollars 36bn (pounds 25bn) stake in the Cable & Wireless backed Hong Kong Telecom.
However, the sharp decline in the value of both telecoms and internet stocks, combined with some damaging personal publicity has seen PCCW's share price and Mr Li's reputation decline. In the year 2000 PCCW posted a net loss of Dollars 886m.
Some analysts say that he lacks the experience needed to integrate and manage what is now a sprawling business.
Mr Li has also had to deflect personal criticism after admitting that he never actually graduated from Stanford University in the US, despite the company assuring investors that he had.
Despite the criticism Mr Li insisted he will hold on to his chairmanship role and said there would be no change until PCCW's evolution from internet to telecoms business was complete.
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