Level 3 (was: "legacy" Wiltel/Looking Glass bandwidth)

Thu Jul 2 22:48:44 UTC 2009

>
>
>> Without continuing the L3 pile-on, one can easily glean from their public
>> filings that they have never properly filled out their management depth in
>> acquisition absorption and/or sufficiently empowered those folks. The
>> billions in revenue lost from acquisitions like Genuity and others have told
>> this story more than once.
>>
>> L3 is not alone in this. Worldcomm's failure to integrate acquisitions led
>> to a much larger operational cash need than VZ has shown for the same assets
>> (verio, lots of other names here). This is because VZ understands how
>> traditional businesses acquire others, better, in my opinion.
>>
>> Unfortunately, L3 has shown little interest in making the "real world,
>> tough business" cuts in heads and absorbing the real (internal) pain of
>> acquisitions and seems to have a pretty laissez-faire attitude towards its
>> customers, even at its senior management levels (Cxx). I think this will be
>> (and has been) the biggest problem for them. Even a possible merger/JV with
>> Sprint may not be sufficient to solve that. Their resolution of billing
>> disputes is much more typical of WCOM than VZ.
>>
>> They are a big fish in lots, and lots, of markets. They enjoy being able
>> to dictate pricing in them. IMO, however, they don't have the maturity of
>> (say, AT&T or others) to take that big fish status and leave you still happy
>> with the service. (colloquially: if [good companies] are going to take
>> advantage, at least they don't make it more painful than necessary).
>>
>> Operationally, where you have options (because of pricing, locality, etc)
>> it's long-term good to support competitors, diversity in connectivity, etc.
>> History has shown time and time again that when an industry consolidates a
>> lot of business with a certain vendor, bad things can and do occur.
>>
>> Deepak Jain
>> AiNET
>>
>
Not to mention they have also been the subject of several class action suits
for this very reason regarding the integration of acquired assets, or lack
thereof:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/The-Shuman-Law-Firm-Announces-pz-14325037.html?x=1
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/The-Pomerantz-Firm-Charges-pz-14430251.html?x=1
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/090330/0486160.html


Adam LaFountain