FROM $60 A SHARE TO 30 CENTS A SHARE
THERE WILL BE NO "MEDIA OUTRAGE" BECAUSE THEY WEREN'T FRIENDS OF W.
Global Crossing & the Art of Effective Campaign Contributions
Hutchinson Whampoa??? Great another victory for the Chicoms... What the.....
They had a good idea of building a network and leasing/renting bandwidth so as to allow worldwide communications (remember..........commercial satellite ventures went under).
The dangerous thing here is the Chicom buyer. Can they now tap into all that corporate business traffic over these fiberoptic lines to do INDUSTRIAL SPYING?
Surprise, surprise. More fuel for the fire. I'll have to take this into account in volume two as the war kicks into high gear.
Dragon's Fury - Breath of Fire
The coming Third World War with Red China
FROM $60 A SHARE TO 30 CENTS A SHARE
THERE WILL BE NO "MEDIA OUTRAGE" BECAUSE THEY WEREN'T FRIENDS OF W.
From the press release on Business Wire:
( BW)(GLOBAL-CROSSING)(GX) Hutchison Whampoa Limited and Singapore Technologies Telemedia Pte. Ltd. Plan to Invest $750 million in Global Crossing
Business Editors
HAMILTON, Bermuda--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 28, 2002--Global Crossing (NYSE: GX):
-- Investment, combined with Chapter 11 filing, will restructure balance sheet
-- Operations worldwide unaffected by filing
Global Crossing (NYSE: GX) today announced that it has signed a letter of intent with Hutchison Whampoa Limited and Singapore Technologies Telemedia Pte. Ltd. for a $750 million cash investment for a joint majority stake in the company's equity in connection with a restructuring of the company's balance sheet. In order to begin the restructuring process, Global Crossing and certain of its affiliates commenced Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and coordinated proceedings in the Supreme Court of Bermuda.
Under the terms of the proposed investment, which is conditional on, among other things, the confirmation of a plan of reorganization by the courts before the end of August 2002, creditors would share in a combination of cash, new debt, and new equity in the restructured company. Existing common equity and preferred shareholders would not participate in the new capital structure.
John Legere, Chief Executive Officer of Global Crossing stated, "We believe this new equity investment from parties as strong as Hutchison Whampoa and Singapore Technologies Telemedia validates our confidence in the strong future of our company. This investment, along with the financial and operational restructuring that we're implementing, will strengthen our balance sheet and enable Global Crossing to build a sustainable business upon its existing unmatched global network. With this restructuring, we believe we can become the global leader providing networking services among the world's top 200 cities to global enterprises and carriers."
Mr. Legere said that business would continue as usual during the restructuring process. Employees will continue to be paid their wages and other benefits without interruption. Worldwide operations will be unaffected by the filing and customers will not experience any changes in their service.
"Ours is a balance sheet issue, not an operational one," Mr. Legere said, "and today's actions are intended to directly address this issue. Even with the financial uncertainty we've recently experienced, customers have continued to choose our network over many others. With this restructuring, we'll put financial uncertainty behind us and the power of our network will once again become the primary factor in the minds of our customers. Hutchison Whampoa and Singapore Technologies Telemedia are perfect matches for Global Crossing. They bring considerable financial resources and business acumen, which we are confident will add significant value to Global Crossing's prospects."
"With a strengthened balance sheet and reduced debt, we are confident that Global Crossing will be in an excellent position to take advantage of its unique global network, growing customer base, and outstanding service capabilities to create substantial value in the coming years. We are committed to an expedited restructuring process," Mr. Legere added.
Mr. Canning Fok, Group Managing Director of Hutchison Whampoa, and Mr. Lee Theng Kiat, President and CEO of Singapore Technologies Telemedia, said, "We are excited about the prospect of working with Global Crossing's management team and the opportunity presented by this transaction to develop and strengthen Global Crossing's business."
Hutchison Whampoa and Singapore Technologies Telemedia already have business relationships with Global Crossing and its affiliates. Asia Global Crossing and Hutchison Whampoa each own 50 percent of Hutchison Global Crossing, a leading telecommunications service provider in Hong Kong providing fixed-line, Internet and data services. Asia Global Crossing and a subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Telemedia each own 50 percent of StarHub Crossing, which owns and operates a high capacity backhaul network in Singapore.
About Global Crossing
Global Crossing (NYSE: GX) provides telecommunications solutions over the world's first integrated global IP-based network, which reaches 27 countries and more than 200 major cities around the globe. Global Crossing serves many of the world's largest corporations, providing a full range of managed data and voice products and services. Global Crossing operates throughout the Americas and Europe, and provides services in Asia through its subsidiary, Asia Global Crossing (NYSE: AX). Please visit www.globalcrossing.com or www.asiaglobalcrossing.com for more information.
About Hutchison Whampoa
Hutchison Whampoa is a Hong Kong-based multinational conglomerate with origins dating back to the 1800s. Hutchison is also part of the Li Ka-shing group of companies, which together represent about 15% of the total market capitalization of the Hong Kong stock market. In 2000, consolidated turnover (including associates) was over US$10 billion, and consolidated net profit was approximately US$4.4 billion. With over 100,000 employees worldwide, Hutchison operates five core businesses in 36 countries: ports and related services; telecommunications and e-commerce; property and hotels; retail and manufacturing; and energy and infrastructure. For more information, visit http://www.hutchison-whampoa.com.
About Singapore Technologies Telemedia
Singapore Technologies Telemedia is a leading info-communications group that provides voice, data and video services. It focuses on three core businesses: data & voice, broadband, & multimedia. Through its subsidiaries and associate companies, Singapore Technologies Telemedia provides fixed and mobile telecom services, wireless data communications services, Internet mobile services, global IP network services, managed hosting services, satellite services, broadband cable and e-business software development services. Singapore Technologies Telemedia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Singapore Technologies group.
(Snip)
By the way, you should visit the Hutchison Whampoa site. It makes weird noises.
A front page article in the Saturday Santa Fe New Mexican reported the wife of Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) received $2.5 million in fees as a lobbyist on behalf of the fiber-optic company, Global Crossing. The paper reported that Anne Bingaman's office released a statement in which she stated she, "never met or spoke at any member of Congress or congressional staff on behalf of Global Crossing."
The US government has launched an investigation into anti-competitive practices in the undersea cable business. The DoJ’s concerns focus on the way in which a consortium of large international telecoms companies led by AT&T sells voice and data transmission services over its undersea cable networks. Members of the consortium, including AT&T, Sprint, Level3Communications, MCI Worldcom and three of Japan’s biggest telecoms companies – NTT, Japan Telecom and KDD – received an 18-page civil investigative demand from the DoJ in late June.
Those close to the industry believe that the inquiry has also come as a response to complaints by Global Crossing, a telecoms company started two years ago, which also offers undersea cable services. Global Crossing is currently building a trans-Pacific undersea cable network, and complained earlier this year to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about price discrimination by the Japan US Cable Network, operator of a rival cable service. The complaint resulted in a six- month investigation, after which the FCC granted the Japan US Cable Network a licence for its US$1.2 billion undersea cable between the US and Japan in early July.
Phil Veveer of Wilkie Farr & Gallagher, regular counsel to the Japan US Cable Network, represented the company in the FCC licence application and is now taking a coordinating role for the consortium in this issue. Verveer is assisted by partners Theodore Whitehouse and Stephen Bell as well as associate Jennifer McCarthy. At AT&T, senior attorney Aryeh Friedman is leading an in-house team. MCI is also handling the investigation with a team led by attorneys Jamon Jarvis and Thomas O’Neil. At Sprint, in-house counsel Ken Nakamura, Leon Kestenbaum and James Hedland are handling the issue. At SBC, Steve Strickland is leading an in-house team responding to the inquiry. Qwest have retained Steven Smith at Morrison & Foerster while Viatel have retained Steven Sunshine at Shearman & Sterling. Joseph Krauss of Hogan & Hartson is advising NTT. Japan Telecom has retained Gary Kubek and Jeffrey Cunard at Debevoise & Plimpton in Washington, as well as Katsuyuki Yamaguchi at Nishimura & Partners in Tokyo. Both these firms regularly provide advice to Japan Telecom. Daniel Savrin of Bingham & Dana is advising Japan Telecom’s US subsidiary. KDD has retained Robert Aamoth of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. Global Crossing has retained Anne Bingaman in Washington, DC.
Good riddance.