Features

Company names new CFO 

NEW YORK — AOL Time Warner, EDS and MetLife were among 15 parties chosen Monday to serve on the committee that will represent thousands of creditors owed billions of dollars in WorldCom’s bankruptcy. 

Also Monday, WorldCom named John Dubel as its new chief financial officer and Gregory Rayburn as chief restructuring officer for the telephone and Internet service company’s bid to reorganize its debts and operations. 

Dubel replaces Scott Sullivan, the ousted CFO who is expected to face criminal charges in WorldCom’s accounting scandal. He and Rayburn are both principals with the restructuring firm AlixPartners. 

The Nasdaq Stock Market, meanwhile, announced it would delist the nearly worthless shares of WorldCom and its MCI long distance unit. The move, effective Tuesday, was blamed on the bankruptcy case and WorldCom’s inability to stay up-to-date with the federal filings expected of public companies. 

The creditors committee was selected from among 51 parties who submitted applications to Carolyn Schwartz, the U.S. Trustee handling the WorldCom case for the Justice Department. 

WorldCom chief executive John Sidgmore opened the creditors’ meeting in New York by trying to reassure the 250 or so lawyers and other creditor representatives on WorldCom’s prospects. 

Despite a “crippling” $41 billion debt load and revelations that $3.8 billion in costs were hidden from investors, “underlying those factors, this is a real company with real value,” Sidgmore said. 

The creditors committee will negotiate what portion of their debts the creditors would be repaid when WorldCom emerges from bankruptcy, as well as how much stock in a reorganized WorldCom they might receive in lieu of cash debt payments.