Teligent had an auspicious start. Mandl believed in that shift. In the past year, Teligent has lost many of those key executives. Pickle left last September to become chief executive at another local start-up, Velocita Communications Inc. in Reston. Wright's tenure as CFO ended March 2, after only five months.
Former employees say most of the company's workers are demoralized.
Several former executives say that, beyond the layoffs, as many as 150 employees a month have quit. Employees understood that was the risk at any start-up, but what shocked them was the speed of its decline, a former employee said. In November 1999, the company's board was even concerned about raising too much money and diluting the company's shares. March 2000, however, was Teligent's undoing. Sources say Teligent was very close to purchasing E.spire Communications Inc. of Herndon, an ailing telecom firm that nevertheless had a profitable fiber-optic construction unit.