Intermedia owns 54 percent of Digex, so WorldCom had to buy all of Intermedia to get control of Digex. Despite the high price, Wall Street saw the deal as a lost opportunity for Exodus and punished its stock. Worse still, Exodus passed on a similar opportunity by deciding to not buy competitor GlobalCenter. Exodus had promised the Street that it would be making deals, but last week Wall Street revealed it was having doubts. Analysts sprang to the defense of Exodus, however.
Analysts think that's more than enough time for Exodus to catch up.
Betting against Exodus has, except for a brief period this spring, been a fool's game. If anything, the WorldCom deal was proof that Exodus was in the right place. And we've always been saying that this is a very big business and our only business. I think all the people coming into this are showing that we were on the right track. Hancock is reticent to say that WorldCom paid through the nose for Digex.