MUSEUM OF THE FALLEN
Dominance is not eternal.
The Wall/ Dead Companies/ WorldCom
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Dead Companies

WorldCom

1983 CE 2002 CE

A telecom giant built by acquisitions that booked $11 billion in fake profits and filed the largest bankruptcy of its day.

Born
1983 CE
Died
2002 CE
Lived
19 years
Dead for
24 yrs
At its peak
Second-largest U.S. long-distance carrier; ~$107 billion in assets at bankruptcy
Cause of death
Overreach
Replaced by
MCI / Verizon
The Obituary

WorldCom grew from a small Mississippi long-distance reseller founded in 1983 into America’s second-largest long-distance carrier, assembled through a frenzy of acquisitions including the $37 billion purchase of MCI. To sustain the appearance of growth, executives improperly booked ordinary expenses as capital investments, overstating profits by roughly $11 billion. When the fraud surfaced in 2002, WorldCom filed for bankruptcy with about $107 billion in assets — the largest U.S. filing to that point. CEO Bernard Ebbers got 25 years. The surviving network became MCI and was absorbed by Verizon in 2006.

Worth remembering

  • Its $11 billion accounting fraud made it the largest U.S. bankruptcy ever filed at the time, surpassing Enron.
  • CEO Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years; the surviving business became MCI and was bought by Verizon in 2006.

Sources

  1. WorldCom filed the then-largest U.S. bankruptcy in 2002 after an accounting fraud overstating earnings by about $11 billion Wikipedia
  2. CEO Bernard Ebbers was convicted of fraud in 2005; the company emerged as MCI and was later acquired by Verizon Wikipedia

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