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C&W Bails Out
norskode writes "Not much to go on yet, but it seems that Cable & Wireless is bailing out of their US operations. This is a big provider of IP pipes, and they run the data centers they bought from the failed Exodus folks. There are a LOT of sites that live in their data centers, but no word yet on the disposition of those facilities."
A traceroute to google shows it's using cw.net and exodus.net
This could be bad...
The £6bn loss includes write-downs on the values of some of their purchases; they haven't actually lost that much cash.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
C&W does a wide range of things in the US, including operating colocation facilities, providing connectivity to businesses, operating dialup POPs, and running a major backbone. As a whole, these operations are losing $1 million a day (according to the article), but is it possible that one or two of them might actually be profitable? Will C&W completely pull out of the US, or will they keep a much more limited presense?
:-)
Another thing: will some operations be sold to other companies (and their customers transferred without loss of service), or will everything be turned off and each piece of equipment sold to the highest bidder?
I doubt anyone has the answers, but these are my questions.
Do I remember that Slashdot is/was hosted by Exodus? I'm too lazy to investigate.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
According to Netcraft, slashdot.org itself is using IPs owned by C&W.
MAE EAST isn't really just a "place" any more, it is more of a concept, and exists in several places. MAE EAST is operated now by MCI.
I remember seeing it when it was a small room in an underground parking garage. Net techs left their cans of Mountain Dew in the corner.
Today MAE EAST ATM service is avalable in Vienna, Reston, and Ashburn. It has ceased to really be one room, one floor, or even just in one building.
Near the original MAE EAST is also a major AboveNet (now MFN) collocation facility. That is where Geeks in Space: Slashdot Radio used to be served from.
As a current C&W employee..
I have to say there really isn't any suprise to this. While its hard for any business to make a profit off of low-margin web-hosting, C&W was an ill-suited company to try and do so.
During the past ~2 years since it acquired both Digital Island and Exodus, C&W business model has been to lay-off people who knew what they were doing, and promote those who didn't (usually to the VP level).
The whole business is run by a very top-heavy management structure who have no interest whatsoever in doing what is good for the company. Instead upper management have only been concerned with building their own empires, even if duplicate functions existed elsewhere in the company.
There is only so long a company can exist with such an attitude, and C&W has hit the end of the road.
You must be in my general area.
C&W cancled the remaining three years of our contracts on our lines (Which they also stated they could do with no repercussions), and told us to either find a new provider or sign a contract with New Edge Networks.
Everyone in our company throught C&W was going to get sued for the contract thing. I wonder if any other companies have thought about it.
They didn't leave us much time to get new lines in. I'm really grateful for the work AT&T pulled for us. Based on all estimates, we were going to have our new Ts in only days (2 at most) before C&W pulled our old lines. Not much time to might 9 Class C's of DSL customers, dial-up users, and dedicated T customers.
I am now left with a very bad taste on how NewEdge treated us ("No, you *have* to sign at least a 1 year contract, we can't give you any less, because that's the deal we have with C&W" -- Each T1 from NewEdge was over 1100$ a month..Not a good deal), and how C&W treated us. Given the choice, I'll never do business with either one of them again.
BBN getting sucked up by GTE...
Keep up, will you?
BBN got sucked up by GTE (after briefly instantiating as BBNPlanet); GTEI then got acquired by Bell Atlantic, which then devolved into Verizon and Genuity. Genuity has now been acquired by Level 3.
Next week, Ramirez, long thought dead, will turn up and lay his claim to L3's heart!
We got this letter from our account rep at C&W this morning.
---
I'd like to take this opportunity to summarize Cable & Wireless' =
announcements today. I look forward to discussing this with you in more =
detail and please either call, or let me know a good time to reach you. =
The recent speculation in the media may have been unnerving to you and =
other customers, and we're excited to deliver our message today. I want =
to assure you that our business is not going away, and there is no need =
to seek an alternative provider for your services.
The bottom line is that C&W PLC intends to withdraw from the US market. =
CWUSA is a composite of three primary, and incredibly valuable assets =
including Exodus, Digital Island, and the former MCI Internet Backbone. =
CWUSA has made excellent progress against our November 13 =
re-organization announcement, however, the internet centric business of =
CWUSA does not fit with CW PLC's new strategic focus on national telecom =
companies with strong positions in their primary markets.
C&W PLC will continue to fully fund and support CWUSA until a buyer or =
investor is found for the business. There are no new changes to US =
headcount, or data center facilities, aside from reductions that were =
outlined in our November 13 re-structure announcement. We, as well as =
you (I'm sure) hope for this to be a swift transaction.
Frankly, for myself, and my US colleagues, this presents an =
extraordinary opportunity to grow a new brand on our strengths of the =
combined legacy industry leaders, and continue to provide you, and all =
our customers with exceptional service, and a range of product offerings =
that is unparalleled in our business.
---