Business Channel 2006-09-25&28

Today, the former CEO of WorldCom begins his 25-year sentence. Ebbers, as you were saying, was convicted last year in a federal court for his role in an 11-billion-dollar accounting 1 fraud that toppled the phone giant. But before that scandal, Ebbers was practically a commercial for upward mobi, bility. A former milkman and high school basketball coach, Ebbers pieced together the WorldCom empire through a chain of complex acquisitions. At its peak in the late 1990s WorldCom was the second-largest long-distance company after AT&T. By all accounts, however, Ebbers re, reports to prison virtually broke. He lost hundreds of millions of dollars when his WorldCom stock became more worthless and he had to liquidate 2 almost all of his other assets to settle claims. Richard.

Er, doesn't sound good for Bernie then. (No) And Gerri, yeah, it doesn't, certainly, er, what about the company he led, WorldCom, what's up with that?

Richard, the accounting scandal exposed titanic 3 holes in WorldCom's balance sheet, so in 2002 the company was forced into bankruptcy 4. Along the way thousands of workers lost their jobs as well as savings 5 that were tied up in the WorldCom stock. But the firm emerged from bankruptcy in 2004 under its original name MCI, then in 2005 it was bought by Verizon.

Elsewhere, a major homebuilder says it doesn't know where the floor is. Lennor, Lennar Corp warns that the tumbling housing market has not hit bottom. This comes as the firm reported its third quarter earnings 6 plunged 7 by more than 33%. The company also said it was reducing its fourth quarter earning projections 8, and would miss Wall Street forecasts. That is a second time in a month Lennar has warned that it would not meet fourth quarter estimates. Richard.

I don't know, a lot of people don't wanna hear from Lennar at this moment. Dah, any word, then, er, in terms of why they believe that it's gonna keep on sliding?

Well, they're not saying anything explicitly 9, but like others in the industry, Lennar notes that the economy is strong and unemployment and interest rates are relatively 10 low. Those factors traditionally translate into a strong housing market, but there are more than three million unsold homes across the country, and that glut 11, oversupply 12 is pushing prices down.

Finally the nation's largest concert promoter and the biggest seller of concert tickets are reportedly not in harmony. According to the Los Angeles Times, promotions 13 giant Live Nation says the concert business's been badly damaged by high ticket prices. And that puts the firm at odds 14 with Ticketmaster, which earned more than one billion dollars last year in fees from ticket sales and it's the unquestioned leader in that arena 15. Ticketmaster has the exclusive right to sell tickets for Live Nation events until 2008. The companies are trying to reach a compromise on fees which can add as much as 50% to the price of a ticket. The cost of a ticket, the most popular concerts last year, averaged 57 dollars, but Richard, I gotta tell you they go far higher than that.

Yeah, they do. (Back to you.)

Yeah they certainly do, and you know, it's typical, I guess, Ticketmaster is trying to defend what is almost, I, I wanna say the quasi monopoly, if you will, I mean they're so strong.

Very close, very close to a monopoly and obviously it's a subject to debate, not just by the companies, (Yeah) but also by the fans.

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Vocabulary

1. upward mobility 16, also see vertical 17 mobility--movement from one social level to a higher one (upward mobility) or a lower one (downward mobility), as by changing jobs or marrying.

2. floor--noun. the bottom, the base

3. glut--an excessive supply or amount; surfeit 18.

4. at odds with-- at variance 19 with; in disagreement with

5. quasi--adj. resembling; seeming; virtual: a quasi member.