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American Morning

Minding Your Business: WorldCom; Amtrak

Aired January 14, 2003 - 07:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Changes are in the works at the company that made the biggest bankruptcy filing in history.
Let's get more on that story and a market preview with Andy Serwer -- good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you. Good morning to you.

Kind of a down day on Wall Street yesterday, not a lot of action. The Dow was up a point. The Nasdaq was down a point. S&P was down a point as well. Basically kind of taking a breather.

ZAHN: We can live with those kind of days.

SERWER: Yes. Market's up already 5 percent for the year. A lot of people were expecting that's what the market would be up the entire year, so maybe a down day is expected.

A lot of earnings coming out over the next two weeks, Paula, Intel's going to be reporting this afternoon, so we have some stuff there.

We want to talk about WorldCom though, that's kind of the big story today. Michael Capellas expected to announce a restructuring plan as early as this afternoon, talking about how to get that company out of bankruptcy, what they're going to do. But meanwhile, the company is looking to change its name.

ZAHN: Oh really, and to what?

SERWER: And who would not want to do that? I mean remember WorldCon, you know, remember that? And you know you have one of these tainted names. It's actually very difficult to get a new name because you've got to go to the computers and the consultants, you come up with something like Altrea (ph), you come up with something like Diagio (ph).

Here are some names that we came up with, WorldCalm, as in...

ZAHN: That has such a nice ring to it.

SERWER: ... we're not involved with fraud, you know, very calm. World of Trouble might be more accurate.

And here's a new calling plan name I came up with, 10-10-9-8-7-6- 5-4-3-2-1-16-cents, you know following the stock price all the way down. But anyway, could be. The name I think they're going to pick is MCI, which of course is their consumer long distance business, not tarnished and widely recognized. So that's probably what they're going to do.

ZAHN: And this may happen as early as today?

SERWER: Yes. Yes, so it might be WorldCom may be now MCI.

Want to turn to railroad trains, OK?

ZAHN: Sure.

SERWER: Amtrak, very interesting program. For those of you out in California, the train going from Oakland to Sacramento, they're going to be offering massage...

ZAHN: Oh really?

SERWER: ... on the train in the afternoon. The afternoon train going back from Oakland to Sacramento, you have a busy day working in the Bay Area -- that guy looks like he could use a little massage. OK, so you have a busy day working in the Bay Area, you're going back to Sac, right, $1 a minute masseuses onboard the train.

ZAHN: Right where you're sitting?

SERWER: Yes.

ZAHN: You're in a normal seat?

SERWER: You only have -- they're going to have special massage chairs.

ZAHN: Really?

SERWER: Yes, can you imagine this?

ZAHN: So it's like at the nail salon?

SERWER: Yes, it's like...

ZAHN: So a buck a minute.

SERWER: It's a test program. They're going to try this out. And we will be following this Amtrak, so if it's successful, we want masseuses on the trains here in the East, too.

ZAHN: Yes, let's demand it.

SERWER: Right. Yes.

ZAHN: I can't -- I think that would be pretty popular.

SERWER: I think it'd be pretty cool, yes.

ZAHN: What we should do is send you out there, test out the system -- Andy.

SERWER: I am fine with that. I'm fine.

ZAHN: He says I'm volunteering.

SERWER: Yes, I'm going.

ZAHN: Thanks, Andy, see you in a little bit.

SERWER: OK, see you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 14, 2003 - 07:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Changes are in the works at the company that made the biggest bankruptcy filing in history.
Let's get more on that story and a market preview with Andy Serwer -- good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you. Good morning to you.

Kind of a down day on Wall Street yesterday, not a lot of action. The Dow was up a point. The Nasdaq was down a point. S&P was down a point as well. Basically kind of taking a breather.

ZAHN: We can live with those kind of days.

SERWER: Yes. Market's up already 5 percent for the year. A lot of people were expecting that's what the market would be up the entire year, so maybe a down day is expected.

A lot of earnings coming out over the next two weeks, Paula, Intel's going to be reporting this afternoon, so we have some stuff there.

We want to talk about WorldCom though, that's kind of the big story today. Michael Capellas expected to announce a restructuring plan as early as this afternoon, talking about how to get that company out of bankruptcy, what they're going to do. But meanwhile, the company is looking to change its name.

ZAHN: Oh really, and to what?

SERWER: And who would not want to do that? I mean remember WorldCon, you know, remember that? And you know you have one of these tainted names. It's actually very difficult to get a new name because you've got to go to the computers and the consultants, you come up with something like Altrea (ph), you come up with something like Diagio (ph).

Here are some names that we came up with, WorldCalm, as in...

ZAHN: That has such a nice ring to it.

SERWER: ... we're not involved with fraud, you know, very calm. World of Trouble might be more accurate.

And here's a new calling plan name I came up with, 10-10-9-8-7-6- 5-4-3-2-1-16-cents, you know following the stock price all the way down. But anyway, could be. The name I think they're going to pick is MCI, which of course is their consumer long distance business, not tarnished and widely recognized. So that's probably what they're going to do.

ZAHN: And this may happen as early as today?

SERWER: Yes. Yes, so it might be WorldCom may be now MCI.

Want to turn to railroad trains, OK?

ZAHN: Sure.

SERWER: Amtrak, very interesting program. For those of you out in California, the train going from Oakland to Sacramento, they're going to be offering massage...

ZAHN: Oh really?

SERWER: ... on the train in the afternoon. The afternoon train going back from Oakland to Sacramento, you have a busy day working in the Bay Area -- that guy looks like he could use a little massage. OK, so you have a busy day working in the Bay Area, you're going back to Sac, right, $1 a minute masseuses onboard the train.

ZAHN: Right where you're sitting?

SERWER: Yes.

ZAHN: You're in a normal seat?

SERWER: You only have -- they're going to have special massage chairs.

ZAHN: Really?

SERWER: Yes, can you imagine this?

ZAHN: So it's like at the nail salon?

SERWER: Yes, it's like...

ZAHN: So a buck a minute.

SERWER: It's a test program. They're going to try this out. And we will be following this Amtrak, so if it's successful, we want masseuses on the trains here in the East, too.

ZAHN: Yes, let's demand it.

SERWER: Right. Yes.

ZAHN: I can't -- I think that would be pretty popular.

SERWER: I think it'd be pretty cool, yes.

ZAHN: What we should do is send you out there, test out the system -- Andy.

SERWER: I am fine with that. I'm fine.

ZAHN: He says I'm volunteering.

SERWER: Yes, I'm going.

ZAHN: Thanks, Andy, see you in a little bit.

SERWER: OK, see you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com