Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Zeev's Turnips - No Politics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Softechie who wrote (86371)	6/26/2002 12:24:19 PM
From: furrfu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 99280

They just assumed you wanted some jam with that toast. Doug

To: Softechie who wrote (86371)	6/26/2002 12:30:05 PM
From: stephen wall	Respond to of 99280

WorldCom CEO: We're not a dot-com on the edge By Joris Evers IDG News Service, 05/29/02 WorldCom is in a "crisis of confidence with the financial market," but by no means is the telecommunications company a "dot-com that is on the edge somehow," WorldCom President and CEO John Sidgmore said Wednesday. Sidgmore, who succeeded Bernard Ebbers last month, and several other top WorldCom executives arranged a conference call with analysts and press to tell them that WorldCom is very much alive, even though the heavily indebted company was recently booted from the S&P 500 index, and faces an inquiry by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on accounting policies. "The public perception of WorldCom and the reality of WorldCom are at odds," Sidgmore said. "The recent changes in stock price and credit ratings do not affect our ability to serve our customers," WorldCom Chief Financial Officer Scott Sullivan said. The WorldCom executives said the company has $1.6 billion in the bank, has a strong balance sheet, will effectively manage its approximately $29 billion in long-term debt, and expects free cash flow from operations of about $1 billion this year. "This whole financial story has gotten a little out of hand," Sullivan said. Customers have not been abandoning WorldCom, according to Sidgmore. WorldCom executives have called the CEOs of their top 100 customers and "they heard about our financial position, but they are not in any way getting ready to bolt," he said, adding that WorldCom had not lost any significant customers over the last few weeks. Eileen Eastman, a vice president at research company Yankee Group, said the fact that WorldCom felt compelled to call its main customers "shows there is some anxiety," but, she added, Sidgmore is "very right" when he says that WorldCom is "not a dot-com, but a $32 billion company." "I would not expect WorldCom to fail as a business. They've got a very good position on the market," said Eastman, noting that she is an industry analyst, not a financial analyst. WorldCom and AT&T are the two primary players for enterprise level customers and have a base of customers that are big solid companies in the U.S., Eastman noted. WorldCom's future growth lies in its IP backbone and the international business, Sidgmore said. But before the company thinks about growth, it will have to prove that it can manage its finances. "This is nuclear winter in the communications industry," he said. WorldCom, in Clinton, Miss., is the second-largest long-distance telecommunications company in the U.S. nwfusion.com