No response from WorldCom to $5bn offer
Embattled telecoms giant WorldCom is yet to respond to a $5bn (£3.32bn) offer made by long-distance telephone and internet provider IDT for parts of the company, IDT said yesterday.
Embattled telecoms giant WorldCom is yet to respond to a $5bn (£3.32bn) offer made by long-distance telephone and internet provider IDT for parts of the company, IDT said yesterday.
IDT chief Howard Jonas said the company would be making offers to WorldCom executives and consulting with federal regulators and investors over offers for parts of WorldCom.
Jonas said that some WorldCom investors were already ‘ecstatic’ about the offer, although WorldCom’s top brass had not yet responded – Jones accused them of ‘hiding’ from him.
IDT has offered WorldCom in writing $5.1bn payable over two and a half years for roughly one-third of the company, Jonas said. He said that IDT had no debt and around $1.2bn in the bank.
At the end of June, the WorldCom scandal broke when the company said an internal audit showed that transfers of $3.055bn for 2001 and $797m for the first quarter of 2002 were not made in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
WorldCom said restating these improper transfers would cut earnings to $6.34bn for 2001 and $1.368bn for the first quarter of 2002.
It added it has asked its new auditors KPMG – Andersen was sacked by the company this year – to undertake a comprehensive audit of the company’s financial statements for 2001 and 2002, and will reissue these statements.
The company is rumoured to be facing serious financial difficulties as a result of the improper accounting.