The shareholders it would seem.  It's their money being flushed.

George Toft wrote:
> 
> Hmm...
> 
> CEO gets $4 million severence (Bob Allen at AT&T) for upsetting
> the Board of Directors.
> 
> Joe FTE gets 4 months severence and $205/week for 12 weeks
> (friend at Amex) for upsetting his manager.
> 
> Who's the idiot again? :)
> 
> George
> 
> Digital Wokan wrote:
> >
> > I wouldn't hold my breath.  I think businesses will continue to do
> > really stupid things for as long as CEO's get stupidly large bonuses
> > when they get kicked out for their overly stupid decisions.  Companies
> > shouldn't have to pay management to go the hell away and not darken
> > their door.  Let them collect the $205/week unemployment like the rest
> > of us.  (Adjust for whatever state the idiot lives in.)
> >
> > John Kloian wrote:
> > >
> > > I firmly believe in deregulation, but the boom in the CLEC market and
> > > their practices seem to have been a death sentence.  Its really funny,
> > > take a voice T-1 for example.  Qwest is forced by the federal tariffs and
> > > the Arizona Corporation commission to sell it at a certain price, however
> > > MCI and AT&T or any other CLEC can sell it for upto 35% less than the
> > > ILEC and they do all the time.  Now granted the CLEC losses money on every
> > > deal, but they figured they get vertical sales from the customer.  this
> > > has been going on for some time.  Plus the CLEC's by billions of dollar of
> > > service from each other.  this looks good on the books, but the minute one
> > > decalres bankruptcy everyone suffers as a result.  this is what we are
> > > seeing happen right now.  When Global Crossing declared bankruptcy they
> > > force XO to right off 7.35 billion on their books, obviously that hurt and
> > > is one of the reasons XO is about to file chapter 11.
> > >
> > > In the end this shakedown will probably be a good thing, but we'll more
> > > than likely be stuck with one ILEC until some new players pop up.
> > > Hopefully the business practices will change slightly.