WorldCom geeft fraude van bijna 4 miljard dollar toe

Re:25 of 29 biggest telecom companies will go bye- (Score:5, Insightful)
by rudy_wayne (rudy@icelandic.serial.killer.com) on Tuesday June 25, @09:38PM (#3766326)
(User #414635 Info)
The comparison to the auto industry doesn't work. Back when there were 50 auto companies
there were a lot fewer people in the US and a lot less demand for cars. A shake-out was inevitable.
There would be no need for any of those 25 telecom companies to go broke if they were run properly -- there's plenty of customers and plenty of demand.

What we are seeing with WorldCom, Enron, Tyco, ect. is a recurring pattern. Companies with lots of customers and lots of revenue -- who are going broke. More and more companies are becoming the playthings of the wealthy elite and Wall Street -- existing not to produce goods and services but existing only to enrich a handful of people.

example -- @Home had over 4 million customers paying $45 a month. Do the math. And yet they went broke. Could it be the $6 Billion they blew on a worthless dotcom?

example -- Exodus Communications had $300 million gross revenue in 2000. In 2001 they had $660 million gross revenue -- more than double the previous year -- and filed for Chapter 11 at the end of 2001. Why? Blowing hundred of millions on bad aquisitions.

example -- AT&T hires a new CEO. Fires him less that a year later, citing "a lack of intellectual leadership" as the reason. But gives him a $26 million severance package.

example -- Hewlett-Packard/Compaq -- History shows very clearly that there has never been a merger of this type that has worked out well. Not one. And yet the deal was done anyway because it will enrich the people who engineered the deal. 5 years from now, when Hewlett-Packard is following in the footsteps of WorldCom and Carly Fiorina is fired by the HP board of directors, it won't matter -- she and a few others will have already pocketed their millions and will draw a nice severeance package as a reward for running the company into the ground.

example -- Dozens of companies who are doing poorly, profits are down, even losing money in some cases, but top executives receive large raises and bonuses.