WorldCom CEO Ebbers Resigns

WorldCom

Ebbers' resignation follows a sharp first quarter earnings decline for WorldCom. The carrier blamed customer network downsizing for its poor results.

For the quarter, WorldCom earned $184 million, or 6 cents per share, on sales of $5.1 billion, compared with income of $532 million, or 18 cents per share, on sales of $5.2 billion for the year-ago quarter.

First Call estimates were for earnings of 11 cents per share.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was $1.8 billion, vs. $1.9 billion for the year-ago period

At the time of the earnings call last Thursday, Ebbers said WorldCom's large customers have reduced employee head count, closed locations and delayed deploying new applications, resulting in reduced usage of its telecom services. The financial-services and high-tech sectors were hit especially hard, he said.