Global Crossing Ltd

Singapore Technologies Telemedia has a binding contract to buy Global Crossing Ltd. that forbids the telecom firm, which is in bankruptcy proceedings, from considering an offer from investor Carl Icahn, a source close to the deal said. Billionaire Icahn's U.S.-based XO Communications Inc. said Friday that it offered more than $700 million to buy Global Crossing. That compares with the $250 million that state-controlled telecom group ST Telemedia has agreed to pay for a 61.5% stake in the U.S.

Billionaire buyout artist Carl Icahn made a bid Friday for one of the battered telecommunications sector's biggest casualties: Global Crossing Ltd. XO Communications Inc., which emerged from bankruptcy proceedings in January after Icahn acquired control, said it offered $700 million for the fiber optic network provider, whose lavish former offices in Beverly Hills epitomized the excesses of the technology boom.

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. probably will pull out of a deal to buy a stake in Global Crossing Ltd., leaving Singapore Technologies Telemedia as the sole candidate to take control of the telecommunications company, a source familiar with the situation said Tuesday. Hutchison's expected decision comes as the U.S.

A Phoenix buyout firm best known for its real estate investments said Monday that it had agreed to pay $63 million for an undersea cable network built by Global Crossing Ltd. and two affiliates. Pivotal Private Equity, whose parent firm owns the Century Plaza and St. Regis hotels in Los Angeles, said it planned to get into the telecommunications business by buying Pacific Crossing Ltd.'s two lines connecting the U.S. to Japan and the rest of Asia.

Lodwrick M. Cook, who made tens of millions of dollars as the chairman of Atlantic Richfield Co. and the co-chairman of Global Crossing Ltd., is being sued by a New York bank for failing to repay a $7.5-million personal loan. Cook, 74, defaulted on a letter of credit and is trying to use Global Crossing's bankruptcy filing "to avoid his obligation to repay the millions of dollars loaned to him that he rightfully owes to others," according to the suit filed by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Global Crossing Ltd. has told federal regulators that it is considering an arrangement to limit Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.'s role in the company, according to a letter filed with the Federal Communications Commission. This is the first time the company has acknowledged publicly that it was working to restructure the deal to appease U.S. national security officials. Hutchison may become a silent partner, but Global said it would not materially change the deal.

The judge overseeing the fraud case against fiber-optic network operator Global Crossing Ltd. threw out a lawsuit accusing former President Clinton of helping to inflate the company's stock price in return for a donation to his presidential library. U.S.

Richard Perle, a Defense Department advisor, said he is helping Global Crossing Ltd. try to win government approval of its sale to foreign companies, a deal that has prompted concerns about national security. Perle would receive $725,000 for his work, including $600,000 if the government approves Global Crossing's sale to a joint venture of two Asian firms, according to lawyers and others involved in the bankruptcy case.

An internal investigation at Global Crossing Ltd. absolved senior managers Monday of creating sham swaps of fiber-optic network capacity to boost sales and stock prices, but the lawyer for a fired executive who raised the charges called the report a "complete and utter whitewash."