Global Crossing Ltd. crashed spectacularly after the dot-com boom, wiping out investors in its undersea fiber-optic network. Five years after emerging from bankruptcy-court protection, the company said it is now considering possible mergers and acquisitions to gain scale.Global Crossing on Wednesday reported a net loss of $71 million for the third quarter, compared with a loss of $89 million in the same period a year earlier. The company said it turned cash-positive, generating $28 million in cash.
Once vilified alongside Worldcom Inc. and Enron Corp., the Bermuda-based company now handles conference calls for Sun Microsystems Inc., reservations traffic for Delta Air Lines Inc. and social-networking activity for MySpace.
Global Crossing has boosted its customer base by shifting away from selling bandwidth to telecommunications carriers and toward providing PBX Phones. With an Internet-based network that is cheaper to run than many of its rivals', Global Crossing pitches itself as a low-cost alternative to telecom giants such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.
Global Crossing Chief Executive John Legere said he expects a new wave of consolidation in the next 18 months, of which he wants Global Crossing to be part. "We've been in talks with everyone," he said.
Global Crossing emerged from bankruptcy court in 2003. It is now 66%-owned by Singapore Technologies Telemedia Pte. Ltd., part of Singapore state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd., and in 2004 listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The next year, Global Crossing and three former executives settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over charges that it failed to adequately inform investors about swaps of capacity with other telecom companies.
Mr. Legere, who took his post in October 2001, became the face of a company reviled for destroying the value of life savings. Mr. Legere worked to slash costs, attract funding from Singapore and win clearance from the Committee for Foreign Investment in the U.S. Since 2006, he has completed two acquisitions that added networks in Latin America and Europe.
Mr. Legere said Global Crossing can weather the current downturn, which he said may even lead to more business from companies looking to cut their telecom costs. "In a bad economic environment, there are more reasons why people will move to us," he said.
