The collapse in telecommunications stock prices may transform the Dulles corridor along Route 267 from a land of riches into a potential economic ghost town. Shares of many local telecommunications companies are now shadows of their former selves. Teligent Inc., for example, has lost about 98 percent of its value since March. Even companies that analysts are bullish on for the future, like Nextel Communications Inc. and XO Communications Inc., have stock prices that trade at a fraction of where they were last spring. Several firms are finding themselves crushed under massive debt incurred during the bull market, forcing them to sell valuable assets to raise cash.
Analysts believe many won t survive.
It missed an interest payment due Feb. 15 and is funded to operate to mid-March. It acquired a residential long-distance business with Esprit Telecom Group PLC in late 1998, but the financially strapped GTS now under new management is trying to sell that unit to raise cash and continue its operations. It hasn t found firm footing since. PSINet has offered up its more lucrative units for sale and analysts predict its cash won t last much beyond midyear. Teligent Inc. of Vienna, which wowed Wall Street last year with its fixed-wireless technology, is also in tough straits.