Global Crossing Lines Up Offers

Global Crossing Ltd. said Friday that multiple bidders submitted offers this week to buy the telecommunications company and bring it out of bankruptcy.

In a conference call with employees, Chief Executive John Legere was upbeat Friday, saying the company got “what we had hoped for and worked so hard for” from the bidding process, which officially began when interested investors submitted formal offers late Thursday.

Others aren’t so sure Legere’s optimism is warranted because, they say, only a few bidders submitted offers out of more than 60 companies and investors that expressed interest in Global just a few months ago.

Among the offers, say sources familiar with the bidding, is a complex proposal for the entire company that would give creditors more than $1.2 billion in cash and notes and a chunk of stock that would represent more than 21% of Global. Those terms are part of a joint bid for the worldwide fiber-optic network builder submitted by investment firms separately owned by brothers Alec and Tom Gores of Los Angeles.

Interested bidders also could include rival network firms such as Level3 Communications Inc., which this week received a $500-million cash infusion earmarked in part for the purchase of distressed telecommunications assets and companies.

Legere said Friday that the company also received multiple offers for individual pieces of Global Crossing, such as for its phone teleconferencing business.

“To think that only a few bids were made is really scary,” said analyst Patrick Comack of Guzman & Co. in Miami.

Comack and others say potential investors in the ailing company, which filed for bankruptcy protection Jan. 28, may have been scared off by the deepening crisis in the telecommunications industry, and remained on the sidelines because of the prospect of more assets becoming available if WorldCom Inc. files for bankruptcy protection.

Accounting investigations at WorldCom, Global Crossing and Qwest Communications International Inc. probably didn’t help, the analysts said.

Global Crossing’s creditors turned down an earlier offer from Asian firms Hutchison Whampoa and Singapore Technologies Telemedia.

Legere told employees that the bids will be analyzed through July 23 by attorneys and investment experts hired by Global Crossing, as well as by the company’s banks and creditors. On July 24, the bidders will participate in an “auction” process, with the investors squaring off and the Global Crossing representatives pressing them to improve their offers.