WorldCom Holds Call To 'Set Record Straight'

WorldCom

"WorldCom is in this business for the long haul," said Sidgmore. "Our perceived financial issues are not reality."

Sidgmore said WorldCom has $1.6 billion in cash on hand and the carrier expects to have free cash flow of about $1.6 billion this year.

Scott Sullivan, executive vice president and CFO, added that WorldCom secured a new accounts receivable securitization program and drew down a $2.65 billion facility that it will pay back once a new bank facility of $5 billion is in place. The $5 billion facility is expected to be in place in June.

Another bone of contention for Sidgmore is speculation that customers are jumping ship in light of the spotlight on WorldCom's finances and an ongoing SEC investigation into its accounting practices.

"We have 25 million customers," Sidgmore said. "This is not a dot-com that's on the edge. Liquidity is not an issue for us today. We have not lost any significant customers over the past few weeks, despite the fact that there has been a lot of misstatements and misunderstandings about our financial position."

Sullivan said WorldCom had $300 million in new installation sales during the first quarter.

In recent weeks, WorldCom's stock has taken a beating, and Moody's and Standard and Poor cut the company's credit rating to junk status.

"Our stock price and credit rating have no impact on our ability to serve customers or our ability to conduct daily business operations, and our stock price has no impact on bonds or availability of bank facilities in terms of liquidity," Sullivan said.

Sullivan added that WorldCom is cooperating fully with the SEC and he believes WorldCom's accounting practices are appropriate and consistently applied.