De bestuursvoorzitter van KPNQWest heeft vanmiddag tijdens een bijeenkomst met het personeel bekend gemaakt dat faillisement wordt aangevraagd voor de Nederlandse dochter van het bedrijf. De handel in aandelen KPNQWest aan de effectenbeurs Euronext in Amsterdam werd rond half twee tot nader order stilgelegd. Dit gebeurde in afwachting van een medeling van het in surseance verkerende bedrijf. Meer nieuws is op dit moment niet bekend.
Update: Uit betrouwbare bron hebben we vernomen dat alle verbindingen van KPNQwest om 18:30 zullen worden platgelegd:
KPNQwest majority shareholder, Qwest was labeled junk this morning - any idea why?
The source told silcon.com: "The entire network is being turned off at 5.30 today. Discussions with AT&T and other possible candidates for our assets have been nullified and the banks are not helping one bit. It's absolute chaos here. The UK office is being wound up at midday."
He added: "Switching us off will be like closing down the M25."
MD for southern regions at virtual network operator Vanco, said: "KPNQwest has stopped paying its network carriers on behalf of its customers. If I was a customer I would be very nervous. "If its network was to stop working it would be an absolute disaster - business across Europe would grind to a halt. Hundreds of millions of pounds would be lost."
RoyalKPN NV, which has a 40 per cent stake in KPNQwest, refused to comment. US cable business Qwest owns 44.3 per cent of KPNQwest and private investors hold the remaining 11.4 per cent.
KPNQwest filed for bankruptcy last week. Its fibre optic network - which is currently in the possession of its receivers in the Netherlands - is 25,000km long and covers 18 European countries.