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Cash crisis for Worldspace |
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| Chris Forrester, on 28-08-2008 |
Worldspace is now just two weeks away from its special September 11 meeting, designed to seek shareholder approvals for various loans and pledges made over the past months. A contribution from a reader, clearly close to the Worldspace action, shows how dire the situation now is at the broadcaster.
On August 17 we reviewed Worldspace’s quarterly and half-year numbers
that had just been released. Worldspace itself admitted that certain
suppliers and employees were not being paid.
Our reader writes in response to that story: “[I’m] surprised that you
chose not to mention that nearly 500 WorldSpace employees have not been
paid since July 1 and July 15! Salaries have not been met on time since
April. No communication in advance so staff mortgages, electric and
basic bills all went unpaid... while COOs who bail out get their
severance packages ...Employees in India, US and Italy are expected to
still be in for their work keeping satellites up and radio stations
working without any sign of pay...unpaid week after week…”
The comment talks about “COOs who bail out” and this refers to
Worldspace’s two co-COOs who left the company on August 1 (Alex Brown
and Greg Armstrong). Mr Armstrong received $50,920 in accrued holiday
pay on departure while Mr Brown’s severance settlement has yet to be
announced. Assuming this to be at least similar, the $100,000 or so
paid to these two represents a large slice of the miniscule cash assets
of just $1.2m in its coffers as at June 30.
Worldspace has a market capitalisation of $55m.
© Rapid TV News 2008
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