Qwest Communications Interna-tional Inc, seeking to settle a federal accounting investigation, will erase US$950 million in sales from fiber-optic network trades in the second half of 2000 and in 2001.
The company may also restate some of the US$531 million it recorded in cash sales of network capacity, it said in a statement yesterday, without saying when or specifying the period or amount.
In July, Qwest said it misreported US$1.16 billion in the network trades, or swaps, from 1999 to 2001.
Qwest, the biggest local-telephone company in 14 western US states, inflated sales as demand waned for the long-distance network it borrowed to build. As transactions with Global Crossing Ltd and others were misreported, managers including former Chief Executive Officer Joseph Nacchio and founder Philip Anschutz sold billions of dollars in company stock.
"If we find something that needs disclosure, we'll disclose it and we'll be as transparent as we can," Chief Financial Officer Oren Shaffer, brought in by CEO Richard Notebaert in July, said.
Of the swap restatement, US$685 million relates to 2001 and US$265 million to 2000, Qwest said. In the year-and-a-half prior to its June 2000 merger with local-phone operator US West Inc, Qwest said it recognized US$1.32 billion in capacity sales with the same accounting used later.
"Any time that you see an effort to clean house by the current management team, that's always perceived positively," said Bruce Allen, who helps manage about US$200 million at Cascade Financial Management in Denver, where Qwest is based.
The company in January reported 2001 sales of US$19.7 billion and a per-share loss of US$2.41. For 2000, the company reported a loss of 6 cents a share on revenue of US$16.6 billion.
Qwest yesterday identified US$894 million in additional revenue that may be restated. In addition to those for 2000 and 2001, Qwest said its financial statements for the first quarter of this year shouldn't be relied on.
The company is also restating costs related to the US$950 million in swaps, it said.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
PETITIONS: A Democratic Progressive Party official quoted President William Lai as saying that civil society groups are organizing the recall drives at the grassroots level Some civil society groups yesterday announced that they have collected enough signatures to pass the first-stage threshold to initiate a recall vote against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators in 18 constituencies nationwide, saying that they would submit the signatures to the Central Election Commission (CEC) today. They also said that they expected to pass the threshold in eight more constituencies in the coming days, meaning the number of KMT legislators facing a recall vote could reach 26. The groups set up stations to collect signatures at local marketplaces and busy commercial districts. The legislators their petition drives target include Fu