According to media reports, C&W is going to withdraw from U.S. markets. No word on the of its Internet operations; the Wall Street Journal says C&W declined to say how much the new restructuring plan will cost or explain how it plans to withdraw from the U.S. because it doesn't want to weaken its negotiating position with potential buyers of assets. Although the company has £850 million in outstanding property leases in the U.S., Richard Lapthorne, the company's new chairman, said the company's net cash of 1£.62 billion means "we know we can afford the worst case." Most of C&W's U.S. revenue is derived from hosting Web sites for large companies, such as Microsoft Corp. C&W pushed into the U.S. Web-site hosting market by buying Digital Island Inc. of San Francisco and most of the assets of Exodus Communications Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., for about $1 billion in 2001. But Mr. Caio says C&W's competitors have lower costs, and its U.S. operations had an operating loss of £255 million on revenue of £512 million in the year ended March 31. --Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb (me) http://www.wilyhacker.com (2nd edition of "Firewalls" book)