As Global Crossing Sinks, Gary Winnick Stays Dry

Of all the overnight tech sensations of the late 1990s, few can match the story of Gary Winnick's spectacular rise and equally breathtaking decline. A former associate of junk bond king Michael Milken, Winnick put together Global Crossing Ltd. (GX ) after hatching a plan to lay fiber-optic cable across the Atlantic in 1997. From there, he quickly built an international telecommunications business delivering phone and data services to Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Winnick took Global Crossing public in August, 1998, at a split-adjusted $9.50 a share, and barely seven months later, it had soared to $64. Its market cap, at $47 billion, exceeded that of General Motors Corp. (GM ) Winnick's secretary became a millionaire, and Winnick paid what is believed to be the highest price ever for a single-family home in the U.S., more than $60 million, for an estate in Los Angeles' Bel Air neighborhood. "Money's no fun unless you spread it around," Winnick told BusinessWeek last year.