September 20, 2002 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Bankrupt telecommunications carrier Global Crossing Ltd. is reportedly planning to seek court approval next week for the settlement of $497 million in claims by seven of the company?s major equipment and construction vendors.
Global Crossing?s proposed settlement would see the company pay about $113.5 million in installments, and allow the vendors to have general unsecured claims of about $82 million in total.
The agreement would reportedly save the company about $24.5 million on post-petition services otherwise payable to the vendors in 2002.
Global crossing reached agreements with Nortel Networks, Hitachi Telecom, Juniper Networks, Level 3 Communications, Sonus Networks and Alcatel SA in August, but negotiations with Lucent Technologies took almost an additional month.
In exchange for releasing Global Crossing from $123 million in claims, Lucent will receive $15 million within 10 days of the settlement?s approval, and $10 million more at confirmation of the plan or March 31, 2003, whichever comes first. Lucent will also have a $20 million unsecured claim against Global crossing.
