XO posts loss on weak demand

Tuesday, March 16, 2004 | 11:06 a.m.

RESTON, Va. -- XO Communications Inc., the telephone company with Las Vegas-area operations controlled by financier Carl Icahn, Monday reported a fourth-quarter loss of $21.4 million amid a decline in demand from carrier customers.

The loss was 22 cents a share, and sales were $261 million, XO said in a statement. A year earlier, XO reported a loss of $169.8 million, or 39 cents a share, on sales of $299.4 million. The 2003 results aren't comparable to 2002, when the company was reorganizing under bankruptcy-court protection, XO said.

Revenue this year at XO will be more than annualized fourth- quarter sales, or $1.04 billion, the company said. The bankruptcy allowed XO to shed $4.6 billion of debt that it couldn't repay when demand forecast in the 1990s didn't live up to expectations.

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