Inside the Telecom Game

Telecom has been a disaster for just about everyone. Investors have lost some $2 trillion as stock prices have tumbled 95% or more from their highs. Half a million workers have lost their jobs during the past two years. Dozens of debt-laden companies, from Winstar Communications to Global Crossing, have collapsed into bankruptcy. And on July 21, the sector sank to a once-unimaginable low when WorldCom Inc., the company that embodied the industry's power and promise, filed the largest bankruptcy claim in U.S. history.

Yet a small group of CEOs and financiers managed to save the family silver before the house burned to the ground. Philip F. Anschutz, founder of ailing local and long-distance upstart Qwest Communications International Inc. (Q ), reaped $1.9 billion from company stock sales since 1998. Former Qwest CEO Joseph P. Nacchio sold $248 million worth of stock before he was pushed out of the scandal-plagued company in June. Global Crossing founder Gary Winnick sold $734 million of his shares before his company filed for bankruptcy in January. And former WorldCom CEO Bernard J. Ebbers borrowed some $400 million from his company before he was ousted in April--and that loan remains to be repaid.