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To: patron_anejo_por_favor who wrote (111081)	7/2/2001 5:39:27 PM
From: jjetstream	Respond to of 436258

<wonder who's holding the bag?> Well, it looks like ol' Bernie and that ace stock picker Paul Allen are going to take it in the azz on this one....<g> WORLDCOM, VULCAN HOLD LARGE STAKES The Ricochet service, launched in July 2000, now offers speeds of 128 kilobits per second, much faster than typical dial-up Internet connections, but the company has been unable to build its network or add subscribers as fast as expected. In February, Metricom pulled back from a plan to deploy Ricochet nationally and said CEO Timothy Dreisbach was replaced by Derrickson. The company raised $300 million each in June 1999 from U.S. telecom firm WorldCom Inc (NasdaqNM:WCOM - news) and longtime investor Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures. WorldCom has a 33 percent stake and Vulcan Ventures has 43 percent, Metricom previously said. The company reported 40,900 subscribers at the end of March, up from 34,000 at the end of last year. For the first fiscal quarter, ended March 31, Metricom posted a net loss of $186.4 million, or $6.04 per share, on revenues of $3.5 million. Excluding a nearly $89 million charge from capital expenditures, the net loss was $97.5 million, or $3.16 per share. The law firm of Murphy Sheneman Julian & Rogers has been hired as reorganization counsel for Metricom. Kevin Dowd, a principal of Nightingale & Associates LLC, who had been advising Metricom for the last several weeks, was named to the newly created position of chief restructuring officer. ``It is clear to me that Metricom's wireless Internet access product is viable and that its Ricochet service offering provides the fastest mobile wireless communications solution on the market today,'' said Dowd, who has held numerous operating management positions and served as interim president and CEO for more than 28 companies. Email this story - View most popular \| Printer-friendly format dailynews.yahoo.com