Synopses & Reviews
WorldCom was a true success story. Combining ground-floor understanding of a new technology with all-too-American brass and brashness, it grew from a tiny company in rural Mississippi into a 20-million customer global telecom juggernaut.
This explosive growth, however, is not what will be forever burned into the publics memory. It will instead be WorldComs spectacular implosion. The largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, billions of dollars in retirement savings erased, congressional and SEC investigations, corporate leaders smiling grimly as they are led away in handcuffs . . .
This is WorldComs lasting legacy.
Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at WorldCom provides you with a front row seat to the WorldCom disaster. Journalist Lynne Jeter uses her two decades of experience covering WorldCom, along with her inside connections as a longtime Mississippi business reporter, to examine how a company that created so much wealth was able to lose so much so quickly. Filled with fascinating financial details and entertaining anecdotes of the Runyonesque characters that created, and then all but destroyed, WorldCom, Disconnected takes you inside this telecom giant to explore:
- How CEO Bernie Ebbers parlayed ownership of a two-bit motel into stewardship of the nations second-largest long-distance providerand the worlds largest Internet carrier
- WorldComs failed 2000 courtship of long-distance competitor Sprint, and how the details that emerged revealed the companys growing painsand foreshadowed its eventual demise
- WorldComs June 2002 revelation of overstated earnings, and the debacle of mistakes, missteps, and downright unethical management behavior that followed
Much more than a simple corporate biography, Disconnected is a compelling narrative on winning bigand losing everythingon the stages of American and global business. It provides fresh insights into WorldComs inner workings and corporate culture, while describing the social setting, religious influences, political gamesmanship, and cultural climate that drove the company and its leaders. Stories of Bernie Ebberss laid-back workplace attitude share space with firsthand accounts of being reassured of your position over lunch with "the boss"only to return to find your office locks changed and your possessions waiting in a cardboard box!
The WorldCom story has a little of everythingrags, riches, humility, hubris, and ultimately, tragedy. Get the real story, from the people who were there from the start, in the fast-moving, firsthand account Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at WorldCom.
Review
“…I cannot recommend this book highly enough…” (Accounting Technician, November 2003)
Synopsis
The first inside look into the fall of the telecom industry pioneer
Disconnected is the first book to tell the tale of the once powerful telecom pioneer whose corporate scandal eclipses the Enron fiasco. During the summer of 2002, WorldCom, once a leading carrier of Internet traffic, filed the largest bankruptcy claim in American history due to accounting errors totaling over $7 billion-and now finds itself on the brink of corporate extinction. Disconnected offers an engaging account of what really went wrong at WorldCom and why no one saw this corporate collapse coming. Author and award-winning journalist Lynn Jeter has been covering WorldCom since 1984 and provides a one-of-a-kind look into the inner workings of this global telecom giant. Readers will take a front row seat as Jeter explores the personalities and factors that led to WorldCom's rise and dramatic fall-such as the failed Sprint merger in 2000 and the revelation in June 2002 of their overstatement in earnings. Digging deep to uncover the mistakes, missteps, and outright unethical behavior that engulfed WorldCom, Disconnected also takes a closer look at former CEO Bernie Ebbers who was on the frontline during the years leading up to this corporate debacle. Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at WorldCom gives readers the most telling account of a one-time industry giant.
Lynne W. Jeter (Hattiesburg, MS) has been the primary WorldCom reporter for the only statewide business journal in Mississippi (home of WorldCom headquarters), The Mississippi Business Journal. Jeter has closely followed the company's rise and fall since its inception as LDDS in 1983. As a native Mississippian, Jeter has a solid knowledge of the unique business climate of the Deep South and access to a wealth of information and contacts that no other reporter could possess on this topic.
Synopsis
The first inside look into the fall of the telecom industry pioneer
Disconnected is the first book to tell the tale of the once powerful telecom pioneer whose corporate scandal eclipses the Enron fiasco. During the summer of 2002, WorldCom, once a leading carrier of Internet traffic, filed the largest bankruptcy claim in American history due to accounting errors totaling over $7 billion-and now finds itself on the brink of corporate extinction. Disconnected offers an engaging account of what really went wrong at WorldCom and why no one saw this corporate collapse coming. Author and award-winning journalist Lynn Jeter has been covering WorldCom since 1984 and provides a one-of-a-kind look into the inner workings of this global telecom giant. Readers will take a front row seat as Jeter explores the personalities and factors that led to WorldCom's rise and dramatic fall-such as the failed Sprint merger in 2000 and the revelation in June 2002 of their overstatement in earnings. Digging deep to uncover the mistakes, missteps, and outright unethical behavior that engulfed WorldCom, Disconnected also takes a closer look at former CEO Bernie Ebbers who was on the frontline during the years leading up to this corporate debacle. Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at WorldCom gives readers the most telling account of a one-time industry giant.
Lynne W. Jeter (Hattiesburg, MS) has been the primary WorldCom reporter for the only statewide business journal in Mississippi (home of WorldCom headquarters), The Mississippi Business Journal. Jeter has closely followed the company's rise and fall since its inception as LDDS in 1983. As a native Mississippian, Jeter has a solid knowledge of theunique business climate of the Deep South and access to a wealth of information and contacts that no other reporter could possess on this topic.
Synopsis
Lynne W. Jeter (Hattiesburg, MS) has been the primary WorldCom reporter for the only statewide business journal in Mississippi (home of WorldCom headquarters), The Mississippi Business Journal. Jeter has closely followed the company's rise and fall since its inception as LDDS in 1983. As a native Mississippian, Jeter has a solid knowledge of the unique business climate of the Deep South and access to a wealth of information and contacts that no other reporter could possess on this topic.
Synopsis
Praise for
Disconnected
Deceit and Betrayal at WorldCom
"Lynne Jeter tackled the daunting task of making sense of the WorldCom accounting scandal with clear thinking and crisp writing. Disconnected sets a new standard for business writing."
Jim Laird
Editor, Mississippi Business Journal
"Disconnected is the story of the American dream at its best and worst: brilliant entrepreneurship, small-town businessmen with unrivaled vision and foresight, fortunes made, corporate vision distorted, fortunes lost, and lives shattered. Lynne Jeter paints a picture of the birth, growth, and collapse of WorldCom that puts you inside the minds of key players and leaves you wishing that this book were a work of fiction instead of stark reality."
Robert Ingram
author, former Economic Development Assistant to the President, University of Southern Mississippi
"Lynne Jeters positive and responsible approach to journalism is refreshing. Her keen interest and research abilities make her a top-drawer professional."
Heath Hall
Publisher, Pointe Innovation
"Lynne Jeter is the premier southern business writer. She knows the territory. In this book, she writes with knowledge, understanding, clarity, and above all, with courage."
Starr Smith
international journalist, author, and award-winning travel writer
"Disconnected is a must-read for all students majoring in business. It clearly and factually illustrates what happens when executives of an innovative, successful company lack moral and personal integrity, and accountants fail to exercise due diligence in discharging their professional responsibilities. Only the future will provide the conclusion to this story."
Thomas T. Ivy, PhD
Professor and Chair Emeritus of Marketing, University of Southern Mississippi
About the Author
LYNNE W. JETER has been the primary WorldCom reporter for the only statewide business journal in Mississippi (home of WorldCom HQ), the Mississippi Business Journal. Jeter has closely followed the companys rise and fall since its inception as LDDS in 1983. As a native Mississippian, Jeter has a solid knowledge of the unique business climate of the Deep South and access to a wealth of information and contacts that no other reporter could possess on this topic. She is also a regular contributing reporter for the Clarion-Ledger, Mississippis largest daily news-paper. Jeter was named SBA Small Business Journalist of the Year for Mississippi in 1999.
Table of Contents
Connecting the Pipes: A WorldCom Time Line.
Prologue.
Chapter 1. Migrating South.
Chapter 2. Information, Please.
Chapter 3. The Spending Spree.
Chapter 4. The Power Surge.
Chapter 5. The Ultimate Drug.
Chapter 6. Masterstroke.
Chapter 7. The Honeymoon Is Over.
Chapter 8. The Courting of Sprint.
Chapter 9. Hockey, Pals, and the Farm.
Chapter 10. Pink Slipped.
Chapter 11. The Worst Job in Corporate America.
Chapter 12. The Dog Don't Hunt.
Chapter 13. Hoodwinked.
Chapter 14. Infectious Greed.
Chapter 15. Disconnected.
Epilogue.
Afterword.
Notes and Sources.
Acknowledgments.
About the Author.
Index.