WorldCom Background

Located in Clinton, MS. WorldCom is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies with 20 million consumer customers, thousands of corporate clients and 80,000 employees. MCI refers to its long distance service. It also owns UUNet, controlling the wires that Internet service providers use as superhighways to carry Internet traffic between cities and across continents.

Even before the recent accounting disclosures, by 2001, WorldCom was already going through financial turmoil due to large debt and declining rates and revenue. Growth in the telecommunications industry was slowing and the company had too much network capacity. The company was deep in debt from an ambitious buying spree. There were also the controversial $408 million loans to CEO Bernie Ebbers to cover his margin calls on loans secured by company stock.

Below you will find in-depth information about specific areas of the WorldCom story.