Global Crossing
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Global Crossing Limited is a major telecommunications company that provides computer networking services worldwide. It maintains a large backbone and offers transit and peering links, VPN, leased lines, audio and video conferencing, long distance telephone, Managed services, dialup, colocation and VoIP, to customers ranging from individuals to large enterprises and to other carriers. The main emphases are on higher margin layered services like Managed services and VoIP with leased lines. Global Crossing is a tier 1 carrier. The company is legally domiciled in Bermuda for tax purposes, although its administrative headquarters are in New Jersey.
It rode the dot-com boom of the 1990s to incredibly high market values, only to go bankrupt a few years later. Its stock price hit a high of US $64 per share, and would eventually plunge to below $1.
Company chairman Gary Winnick, and former CEOs Leo Hindrey, and Thomas Casey were examples of the excess of that era, each one taking personal fortunes while costing shareholders billions. In addition, Winnick helped Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe turn a $100,000 stock investment into $18,000,000. Winnick later gave a million dollars to President Clinton's presidential library.
In January 2002, the company declared chapter 11 bankruptcy, making it the fourth largest insolvency in United States history. By December 2003, the company completed its restructuring and emerged from bankruptcy, after Singapore Technologies Telemedia bought a two-thirds stake in the business.
It has remained a major name in the business, and it also became a corporate partner of various governmental and academic networks, such as the UK's Immigration and Nationality Directorate, the U.S. government, European academic networks GEANT, SURFnet and others, the US Internet2 and the Canadian CA*Net.
Since emerging from bankruptcy, the company has attempted to re-focus its business around enterprise customers and de-emphasise its historic wholesale business, with some limited success. A new strategy, articulated in October 2004, has enabled it to turn around its performance in its core business while improving margins. It secured additional funding from its parent STT in December 2004 and anticipates becoming cash flow positive by the end of 2006, although at present it continues to burn cash.
See also
External links
- [Global Crossing:] Official site
- [Yahoo! - Global Crossing Ltd. Company Profile]
- [Democratic Party officials profiting from insider dealings]
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