WorldCom chief executive Mr John Sidgmore is pledging to keep cutting costs as the company accused of a massive $3.85 billion fraud faces bankruptcy.
Mr Sidgmore said the disclosure of the accounting scandal is "an undeniable setback" for America's number two long-distance telephone provider.
|
But he said he is moving forwards with plans to make the company leaner and simpler, a process that will involve cutting up to 17,000 staff - beginning tomorrow.
WorldCom employs 180 staff in the Republic, at a headquarters in Dublin and three regional offices in Cork, Limerick and Galway.
Recently the company announced plans to shed 10 per cent of its workforce here as part of the global restructuring plan.
Mr Sidgmore said the sale of certain assets and other costcutting measures will follow, but stopped short of mentioning a bankruptcy filing - which many analysts regard as inevitable.
WorldCom's long-term survival had been hanging in the balance even before news of the accounting scandal broke. The company has apparently been trying to persuade bankers to agree a new $5 billion loan that would help it meet big debt repayments due early next year and give it enough space to ride out the downturn in the telecoms industry.
"This has been a very tough week for WorldCom, there is no doubt about it," says Mr Sidgmore, who replaced the group's ousted founder Mr Bernard Ebbers in April.
"We are going to continue to make the kinds of aggressive changes that are required to strengthen this company."
One of those changes was the sacking of chief financial officer Mr Scott Sullivan, who appears to be at the centre of the accounting scandal.
WorldCom reported that $3.85 billion was wrongly listed on its books as capital expenses in 2001 and 2002, meaning the group may have actually lost millions of pounds when it reported profits. The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges against the company in New York.