Bernie Ebbers Resigns

from the not-that-surprising dept

It's been a very long time since I've heard anyone with anything good to say about Worldcom and their CEO, Bernie Ebbers. So, I guess it's not that big of a surprise to find out that Ebbers has resigned this morning. There's no word on what's going to happen with all the money they loaned him. Even with all that I'm scared (really scared) to find out what sort of ridiculous severance package he'll end up with. Update: This article has more details. The TV news is saying that Worldcom may file for bankruptcy as well.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    xdroop, 30 Apr 2002 @ 6:10am

    ya really gotta wonder

    I was part of a company which was almost absorbed by Worldcom. We were owned by a company owned by MCI -- when Worldcom bought MCI, MCI sold our parent to EDS, while my unit was sold by our parent to yet another company! (This all happened pretty much simultaneously) Now Worldcom is collapsing, EDS has pretty much shut down the former parent of my unit, and my unit is being closed down by it's current owner (no problems for me, I've been gone myself for a year).

    You really have to wonder about the long term wisdom in pushing companies to grow, grow, grow, which is what the short-term needs of the stock market force companies to do. You see this all over the place -- Enron, AOL/Time Warner, you name it. These short-term paper deals which pump the stock for a short period only end up costing the average person in jobs and long-term stock market holdings.

    Why is slow-but-steady growth so bad? Why does it have to be 50% year over year?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    2Lazy2Register, 30 Apr 2002 @ 6:26am

    Re: ya really gotta wonder

    >> Why is slow-but-steady growth so bad? Why does it have to be 50% year over year?

    Because rapid short-term growth concentrates the wealth to the insiders, who of course are the ones that are driving for this in the first place. It's an inherent conflict of interest.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    todd, 30 Apr 2002 @ 12:21pm

    BW article

    If you haven't seen the article on Ebbers in the latest BW, it is a frightening (or funny) read: Bernie called his senior exec team together for a recent strategy session only to spend the entire time discussing how to save money by not watering office plants, cutting down on office coffee theft, etc. It was the kind of story for which there is no comeback; I guessed 3 weeks left for him when I read it.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.