XO Narrows Expected Loss, but Wants to Talk About the Future

You could call it an earnings surprise. XO Communications (XOXO Quote) was supposed to talk about its earnings. Surprise! Why talk about revenue numbers when you can address the company's chances for survival given a $1 billion funding gap in the next five years?

XO put off talk of Street-beating earnings to discuss its viability as a business. Public markets are too stingy to allow XO to skip forward happily into new markets with all the money it needs. Instead, XO is cutting $2 billion in expansion plans, taking private funding and scrambling to scrape together another $1 billion to keep the company going.

Put your party hat on, this is going to be fun.

XO Communications Chairman Dan Akerson thanked investors for sticking with the Craig McCaw brainchild and insisted he's "in this game for the long haul," even as XO was abandoning its long-haul network in the U.S. to darkness. XO can't afford to light up the fiber just yet. Oh yeah, it can't afford to do business in Europe either. In all, XO is slicing $2 billion in planned spending out of its plans for the next five years. But it can afford to offer 50 million shares of common stock to Forstmann Little for $250 million, increasing Forstmann's investment in the company to $1.45 billion for 22.4% of the company. XO is reducing the pricing on Forstmann's previous preferred shares from $31.625 to $17. ...