That time everyone in Omaha forgot about Berkshire and went crazy for a bubble stock: Level 3 Communications.
Crowe renamed it MFS and started building his own networks. It became a competitive local-exchange carrier (CLEC). It spun out and went public in 1993.
Bill Gates gave a speech about the revolutionary nature of the internet and how it could make traditional phone companies obsolete.
Scott: "Bill's talk is probably what got us thinking about the Internet."
For $14 billion.
In 1997, Level 3 was formed within Kiewit Diversified with $2 billion in seed money. (Level 3 because it covered the lower three layers in the OSI model.)
"Our design goal is not to try to guess where design technology will take us five years from now. Our goal is to build a network that can accommodate unprecedented technological change.
"People made a bunch of money on MFS. That set the stage for people buying Level 3. It reinforced the idea that Kiewit never misses. But people began to think about it like you could get rich overnight."
By March 2000, it reached $130 per share or a market cap of $44 billion.
https://t.co/6IVpzCObFM
In 2002, Buffett actually invested $100 million.
James Crowe did. Why? "In the beginning I borrowed money to buy $55 million of Level 3 stock. I needed to pay off that debt."
“I wanted to stick around until I was convinced that Level 3 was solidly on a path toward its destiny”
https://t.co/F2NxC00vxp
"Craig McCaw said to me during this period: “You are always at the mercy of your stupidest competitors.”
"Om Malik estimated that $750 billion vanished when the telecom bubble burst."
https://t.co/Bt6PEMHwbF
https://t.co/IEwz89PDYs
& detailed company history:
https://t.co/DdlRz17PNa
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