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To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (1081)	4/17/2001 1:16:27 AM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2248

Distressed Assets Don't Tempt Time Warner Telecom - CFO 09:33, 2001-04-17 By Christine Nuzum Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--More acquisitions on the scale of GST Telecommunications Inc. are not part of Time Warner Telecom Inc.'s (TWTC) business strategy for the near term, said Chief Financial Officer David Rayner. After GST Telecommunications filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last June, Time Warner Telecom bought the company's assets for $690 million. As of Dec. 31, 1999, the company's balance sheet listed the value of its net property, plant and equipment at $832 million. With telecommunications bankruptcies on the rise, Time Warner Telecom will have the chance to buy companies at even cheaper prices. AT&T Corp. (T) recently paid $130 million for most of the assets of bankrupt NorthPoint Communications. NorthPoint's annual report valued its total plant, property and equipment at $435 million. 'In terms of looking at distressed assets, I don't think we would do anything in the short term on the scale of GST,' Rayner told Dow Jones Newswires. Time Warner Telecom might make smaller purchases of fiber assets in cities where it currently operates or in target cities, he added. The company isn't interested in fixed wireless assets, which are flooding the market after bankruptcy filings by Advanced Radio Telecom Corp. and E.Spire Communications Inc. Fixed wireless technology isn't suitable to the mid-sized to large businesses that are Time Warner Telecom's customers, he said. Time Warner Telecom is still integrating GST, Rayner said. 'Doing something of a similar size simultaneously puts too much risk into the execution' of that integration, he said. Rayner thinks most of the distressed assets of bankrupt companies will be acquired by start-up telecom carriers or by larger providers like AT&T. He also sees potential for mergers between companies that are going concerns. 'There are reasons for it to happen,' he said. 'Scale is important. Size tends to mitigate risk and enables better access to capital.' Rayner declined to give or affirm any projections on the company's financial results. Time Warner Telecom was spawned from Time Warner Cable, and was spun off in 1999. The company still builds its telecommunications network alongside that of Time Warner Cable. America Online Inc. (AOL), which merged with Time Warner last year, owns 45% of Time Warner Telecom. -By Christine Nuzum, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5172 Copyright c 1999-2000 Dow Jones Inc. All rights reserved. quamnet.com