Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at WorldCom
In 1985, Canadian-born Bernie Ebbers, a high-school basketball coach and owner of a string of run-down hotels in rural Mississippi, took over local long-distance reseller LDDS and turned it into the nation's second-largest long-distance carrier, its stock peaking out in 1999 with a return of more than 7,000 times the initial investment. Unfortunately, WorldCom will not be remembered for this successful run, for after a failed attempt at a final merger with Sprint, the growth spurt ended and billions of dollars in accounting errors were revealed, leading in July 2002 to the filing of the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. The rise and fall of this telecom giant had a huge economic impact on the people of Mississippi, and as the primary WorldCom reporter for theMississippi Business Journal, Jeter has been closely following the company since its inception as LDDS in 1983. She opens with a handy timeline of events and takes us behind the scenes to explore the careers and personalities of the players, including those accused of fraud and others who escaped unscathed.David SiegfriedCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved