No Deals or Decisions Yet for Cable & Wireless

Cable & Wireless today said it has reduced losses at its American operating unit but had not yet resolved the best way to exit the US business. "No decisions have been made" about whether to place the US unit into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to CEO Francesco Caio. "We're still looking at a wide range of options." In the meantime, the company has closed eight US data centers and reduced staffing by 1,000 workers, cutting costs by $167 million (100 million pounds) from the second half of 2002.

C&W announced its intention to exit the US hosting market back in June, and has been seeking to sell the business. Recent reports suggest the company is considering a prepackaged Chapter 11 filing for the US unit to facilitate a deal and reduce exit costs. C&W confirmed that it has taken steps to separate the American operations from the parent company. "We have created a stand-alone structure for the US business that we think is the appropriate platform to evaluate a wide range of options," said Caio.

"As soon as we finalise and select the best option we will go back to the market and illustrate the economics, the timing and the process of the exit," said Caio. "We're aware of the interest in this area, but as we said at the beginning, it would be commercially unhelpful to share this information until we identify the best options."