WorldCom's Assets Have Plummeted, Leaving Gap Between Books, Reality (not $104b, only $8b!)

The Wall Street Journal ^

[Petronski]

NEW YORK -- WorldCom Inc. lists $104 billion in assets on its books. But the telecom company's real value to investors -- or to buyers who might want to pick up some of its assets -- is a fraction of that.

[SierraWasp]

"Makes you wonder how many of those lucrative contracts with the government were signed from Feb 1993 to Jan 2001?"

Wull, wun thing 'bout it... as they say in the NYC bars... "And you can look it up!"

Your question in intensely interesting and needs Freepsearching in a big way! I wish I had time!!!

You know what else "they say," don'tcha? "Whatever gets your interest, gets YOU!"

Well I'd sure like to see this pinned on Clinton, Clinton & Gore, Inc., right where it belongs! Especially after the recent swipes taken at Bush, Cheney & Cheney, Inc.!!!

[Grampa Dave]

I have the feeling that a lot of World Com and EDS contracts that were signed and handed over during the X42 years will not be renewed during the x43 years.

Also, I get the feeling that this World Com CEO just sent a big message that he is willing sacrifice all the previous Rat World Commers if the feds don't cancel their contracts.

We may see a lot of Rat former World Commers offered up on a sacrificial plate by the current CEO.

We could be right on the edge of a great sight. That of former elite corporate Rat devouring and feeding frenzy on fellow rats to stay out of jail. When this starts to happen, the DNC will not be able to save the Rat collapse via its Mediot Maggot buddies spiking the news. It will be out in the open 24/7 by the Wall Street reporting agencise. Also, little Tommy Da$$hole, Leaky Leahy, Chi Fi Franken$tein, Boxer and Blubber Kennedy will not be able to hold Senate meetings to silence the rolling over rats.

[JennysCool]

Your wish is my command!

"Your company shows the power of imagination and enterprise."

President Clinton Speaks to MCI WorldCom/UUNET Employees

President Clinton visited the MCI WorldCom Northern Virginia Operations Center on March 1, 2000 to address employees and local technology leaders on the need for permanent normal trade relations with China. Clinton chose to address MCI Worldcom and UUNET, its Internet subsidiary, because of its vital role in worldwide Internet growth.

During his visit, Clinton toured UUNET's new Network Operations Center and met with a group of Loudoun County industry executives.

Speaks to Employees

Clinton was welcomed by more than 2,000 enthusiastic MCI WorldCom/UUNET employees. MCI WorldCom Chairman and CEO Bernie Ebbers introduced the President saying, "Welcome to ground zero of the communications explosion."

Taking the podium, Clinton emphasized the advantages that China's accession to the World Trade Organization would bring to the information technology sector.

Clinton noted that open trade with China would benefit America as a whole. "Only once in a generation do we get to open a market with over one billion customers," he said. Clinton also suggested that opening trade with China would benefit UUNET, as the country does not currently have the infrastructure to support 500 million Internet users.

In closing, the President noted that MCI WorldCom/UUNET employees are on the leading edge of change. "You are the symbol of 21st century America," he said. "Because of what you do everyday, you see and feel the way the world is changing." Clinton also praised the company for its rapid growth, saying it "shows the power of imagination and enterprise."

Tours Network Operations Center

MCI WorldCom/UUNET executives guided Clinton on a tour of UUNET's Network Operations Center, a state-of-the-art facility presently under construction. The new facility will be used to monitor network performance and critical environmental conditions. The center will also be used to monitor UUNET's customer connections and will provide customer service and support.

Meets with Executives

Later in the day Clinton met with several high-tech business leaders from Northern Va. to further discuss how China trade relations would impact the information technology industry.

[Liz]

We could be right on the edge of a great sight. That of former elite corporate Rat devouring and feeding frenzy on fellow rats to stay out of jail. When this starts to happen, the DNC will not be able to save the Rat collapse via its Mediot Maggot buddies spiking the news. It will be out in the open 24/7 by the Wall Street reporting agencies. Also, little Tommy Da$$hole, Leaky Leahy, Chi Fi Franken$tein, Boxer and Blubber Kennedy will not be able to hold Senate meetings to silence the rolling over rats.

Oh what a lovely sight to behold it'll be.

Just like a Typical DemonRat to CYA-it, eh, Gramps? Rats deserting the sinking ship.

Better pray Dubya plays hardball with these characters before letting them off the hook.

[CJinVA]

lol, Worldcom could have as little as $19.97 in cash. whoknows? I guess I should have said "Worldcom claims to have $2 billion in cash".

[Grampa Dave]

Jenny thank you for your great reply to Sierra Wasp re the tie ins between the Bent One/the Clintoon and World Com.

All you great indexers need to index Jenny's reply #23 in this thread!

Free Republic Freepers are incredible!

Jenny, you are very cool!

This is another example of my one and two step kiss of death for corporations:

#1. The CEOS were big time FOB's!
#2. They used Arthur Andersen to cook their books!

[Donald Stone]

WorldCom's bondholders, meanwhile, are working to protect their stake.

Just as the banks have attorneys, the bondholders now do as well.

Late Monday, a committee representing those that own WorldCom bonds hired law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.

[backhoe]

Dave, I linked directly to that reply and mass emailed it. It will get seen.

[Liz]

.......another example of my one and two step kiss of death for corporations:
#1. The CEOS were big time FOB's!
#2. They used Arthur Andersen to cook their books!

Formula was used widely...............

[cpdiii]

What if any are the links between World Com and the Clintoons??

[SierraWasp]

Yes! Jenny! That is extremely cool!!!

I hate to add a "but" in here, but, I was hoping to learn more about what Grampa Dave was asking about... The Government contracts let during slick's maladministration.

I've been an elected official and spoken at company events and said a lot of "Hurrah" type things too and that doesn't prove much. I really want to see Slick NAILED with his true legacy. He and his Party have gotten away with murder!!!

Yet they still point fingers at "W's" administration with impunity!!! SICK!!!

[Young Werther]

Question: Given its revenue stream and customer base, will the government allow WorldCom to cease operations. If so, who picks up the slack. At $.06 per share might a $600 investment in 10,000 shares be worth the gamble. If they can clean up the financial mess and maintain operations the upside might be rosy.

Opinions???

[montag813]

I agree 100% with the otherwise repulsive Michael Bloomberg when he said "Investors who had no business buying stocks of companies with unworkable business models and absurd market valuations are equally to blame as the corrupt CEO's of those companies".

Just like the phony employee "victims" of Enron, people who held on or even bouught WorldCom (and others) after they had fallen 50% or more are simply imbiciles and deserved the reaming they received. How they can still watch CNBC or make "The Faber Report" a bestseller after all the B.S. amazes me.

The Administrator of New York State's Pension Fund is crying foul about WorldCom (they lost $300 million) is a complete idiot. After all, what on earth was he still doing in WCOM below $10, let alone $0.83 per share, which was it's price before the $4 billion fraud disclosure.

[cinFLA]

Question: Given its revenue stream and customer base, will the government allow WorldCom to cease operations. If so, who picks up the slack. At $.06 per share might a $600 investment in 10,000 shares be worth the gamble. If they can clean up the financial mess and maintain operations the upside might be rosy.

First, it is $.24. Second, a company can still go bankrupt, declare the old stock worthless and issue new stock and keep on ticking.

[LenS]

Goodwill is created when a company (e.g. Worldcom) buys another company. For accounting purposes, the book value of the company purchased (i.e. the value of it's physical assets, cash and investments minus liabilities) is the value recorded on the acquiring company's books. However, companies are generally bought at a premium over book value since the acquirer is purchasing future earnings. That excess over book value is booked as goodwill on the acquirer's books. That goodwill is then reduced/expensed over many years since theoretically the company purchased will be providing value to it's acquirer for many years.

Example -- Worldcom buys small long distance company for $100 million. The small company had $60 million in book value (assets over liabilities). The $60 million in assets and liabilities is added to Worldcom's assets and liabilities. The other $40 million in the purchase price is booked as goodwill. Now while goodwill is normally expensed over decades as the small company's assets produce revenues for Worldcom, if it turns out those assets aren't producing, the goodwill might have to be written off in one fell swoop.

This is the problem with Worldcom's goodwill. It's not an asset like a building that can be sold off to a buyer for cash. So if Worldcom's assets aren't producing as much as thought, then that goodwill may need to be written off now to retained earnings. Thus, Worldcom's asset base shrinks very quickly.

[Donald Stone]

I'm not familiar with Worldcom.

I do know that Worldcom is listed as a party in the current Pinnacle Towers bankruptcy.

It appears many of these telecommunications companies were intertwined with each other.

In late 1997 Pinnacle made an approx. $8.3 million payment for certain maryland cellular tower assets to a Mark C. Sapperstein,a very close personal acquaintance and political crony of the Maryland Attorney General, Joseph Curran Jr. (D).

Pinnacle then bundled these assets into a $325 million IPO.

The law firm that was listed on SEC documents for Pinnacle's
$325 million public offering was Holland & Knight, their top attorney Bill McBride is now running for Governor of Florida on the Democratic ticket.

McBrides wife was a formner executive at Bank of America.

Bank of America and another bank are involved in a pre-bankruptcy agreement with Pinnacle to provide some type of financing for Pinnacle.

If this agreement falls thru Pinnacle has agreed to pay Bank of America and the other bank $12 million.

[Donald Stone]

FYI.

An old article provides an interesting perspective on what is taking place today.

"You're a Punk": Lawyers Duel Over Fees in IPO Suits

David Glovin - Bloomberg - New York - 05.21.01

New York, May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Lawyers behind almost two dozen suits accusing investment banks of manipulating initial public offerings are battling to lead the cases and capture the multimillion-dollar fees a victory may bring.

The attorneys are competing to be named lead counsel in suits that arose from a federal investigation into IPO practices by such firms as Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. On one side is Melvyn Weiss, the 65-year-old dean of the class-action securities bar. On the other: two lesser-known New York lawyers,

Howard Sirota, who works with his wife in a three- attorney firm, and Christopher Lovell, a winner in 1998 of a $1.03 billion antitrust settlement. With a potential payday that could bring in tens of millions of dollars for their firms, the feuding lawyers have sometimes taken their fight out of the courtroom and into the corridors. "You know something -- you're a punk," Weiss said to Sirota last month as the two left a courtroom where Weiss had won an early round. "That's why you lost today." "I haven't lost yet," Sirota replied, in an exchange witnessed by a reporter. Sirota added a few choice words denigrating Weiss's firm. "I'll sue you for libel," Weiss said, glaring back.

Apart from vitriol, the lawyers have used a variety of tactics to gain advantage. Weiss knocked his opponents in a letter to a judge. Each side is racing to file suits before the other does. Sirota and Lovell are betting on a flanking maneuver involving an antitrust suit against the banks. "We're going to have the shootout at the OK Corral," Sirota said.

Federal Investigation

Investors went to court after federal prosecutors and regulators began probing whether Wall Street banks manipulated the IPO market for Internet stocks in 1999 and 2000. The plaintiffs say they deserve billions in damages from IPO underwriters and the companies they took public, such as VA Linux Systems Inc., Red Hat Inc., MP3.com Inc., and 17 others named as defendants. The plaintiffs say underwriters secretly allocated IPO shares to investors who agreed to buy more later at higher prices.

That practice, known as a "tie-in arrangement" and illegal under federal securities law, created an artificial demand for new stock, the suits contend. The plaintiffs also claim some investors who received IPO shares agreed to pay inflated commissions on other transactions with the investment banks.

The companies and the banks didn't disclose this to investors, according to suits filed in federal court in Manhattan. The banks and companies have denied wrongdoing, saying they followed securities regulations in the sale of IPOs.

'Pot of Money'

Because stock fraud suits like these can come in clusters -- more than 15 cases were filed against VA Linux alone -- judges often consolidate them and name one law firm, or allied firms, to manage the case. This lead counsel can collect the lion's share of fees if a suit results in a recovery. "They're looking at a huge pot of money," said Professor Alan Palmiter, who teaches securities law at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "They know if they get into the driver's seat, they automatically make hundreds of millions of dollars."

Lawyer David Boies recently won $26.7 million in a price- fixing case against Sotheby's Holdings Inc. and Christie's International Plc. Most of his co-counsels collected less than $100,000.

Lawyers Disagree

Because of the heft of his 190-lawyer firm, Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, Weiss said he's in the best position to prevail against Wall Street's top investment houses. Milberg Weiss said it has recovered $30 billion from defendants. "These are enormous cases that need enormous resources," Weiss said. Sirota, whose firm won a $93 million settlement in 1993 in a securities fraud case against Crazy Eddie Inc. co-founder Eddie Antar, claims he has an edge Weiss lacks. Sirota has long represented hedge fund manager Anthony Bruan, who's cooperating with federal investigators and may provide testimony in the civil cases. "They don't know the facts," Sirota says of Milberg Weiss. "They don't have the witnesses." The stakes are high for all involved. In 1998, Lovell's firm, Lovell & Stewart, won a $1.03 billion settlement in an unrelated antitrust suit against more than two dozen Wall Street market makers, including all seven banks named in the IPO antitrust suit.

Old Rivals

Sirota said his rivalry with Weiss dates back to 1988, when they fought over the lead position in the Crazy Eddie case. Moments before their hallway confrontation on April 19, U.S. District Judge Miriam Cedarbaum had awarded to Weiss' firm control of suits alleging improprieties in the VA Linux IPO, dismissing Sirota's attack on how Milberg Weiss had prepared its case. Under the law, control goes to the lawyer representing the plaintiff claiming the biggest loss. That turned out to be a Swiss company that Milberg Weiss represented, Cedarbaum said. Sirota responded by telling Cedarbaum that Weiss should submit documents to prove his client's losses. Cedarbaum agreed, and a final ruling is pending.

Legal Leverage

Meantime, Sirota says that he and Lovell have won the agreement of the defendants that they should be named lead counsel in the antitrust suit they have brought against the banks, accusing them of colluding to raise IPO underwriting fees. The pact has yet to be endorsed by the judge in the case. Because the antitrust case encompasses all the IPOs at issue in the fraud suits, Lovell and Sirota may be able to leverage the lead counsel position in the antitrust litigation into control over all the cases, legal experts said. Palmiter called the maneuvering by Sirota and Lovell a "very powerful, even brilliant, tactic." Fighting back, Weiss sent a letter to U.S. District Judge William Pauley, who's presiding over the antitrust case, and to all the judges hearing the stock fraud suits, urging rejection of the bid by Sirota and Lovell for total control. Weiss said he noted in the letter that his firm would be filing its own antitrust suit. "We felt the Sirota case was hurriedly put together," he said.

More Competition

Meanwhile, a third firm, Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz, has joined the fray, filing its own antitrust case. It too wants to be lead counsel. Weiss and Sirota agree on one thing at least: the suits should be consolidated into one case, heard by a single judge. Weiss wants to lead it. But he'll have to get past Sirota first. "You heard him attack me and yell," Weiss said of the VA Linux brouhaha. "He said, 'You'll never make a nickel in these cases.' And to me, that's a threat." --David Glovin in U.S. District Court in New York (212) 732-9245, or at dglovin@bloomberg.net.