Teligent Inc. became the latest competitive local-exchange carrier to succumb
to increasing financial pressures, announcing that it had filed for bankruptcy
in the court for the southern district of New York.
The Vienna, Va.-based CLEC said the filing will allow it to continue to offer
broadband voice and data services while it reorganizes its capital structure.
Teligent also said it has entered into an 'interim arrangement' with lenders to
provide funds that are subject to 'certain conditions for near-term
operations.'
Earlier this month, Liberty Media Group shed its 33.7 percent stake in
Teligent. The CLEC, which fired about 900 of its 1,400 employees earlier this
year, had amassed $1.65 billion in debt and $1.21 billion in assets as of Dec.
31, 2000, according to the bankruptcy filing.
Despite those dreary numbers, Teligent's brass remained outwardly optimistic
about the company's future.
'Our goal is to emerge from this reorganization with the appropriate cost
framework to allow us to maximize the value of our nationwide network,
positioning the company for significant future growth,' CEO Yoav Krill said in a
press release.
Teligent is the latest CLEC to encounter big financial troubles. NorthPoint
Communications Inc. pulled the plug on its 100,000 digital-subscriber-line
customers last month after it couldn't muster enough cash to continue on, and it
agreed to sell a portion of its assets to AT&T Corp. for pennies on the
dollar.
