ON THE FIRING LINE AT QWEST

摘要

The conference calls between Cor-porate America and Wall Street analysts to discuss quarterly earn-ings and such often have a sleepy, due-diligence tone to them, with talk of gross margins, cash flow, and the like. But on June 20, Joseph P. Nacchio, ceo of Qwest Communications International Inc., had every listener wide awake as he hammered away at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. for a research report that questioned Qwest's accounting prac-tices. "I'd like people to make sure they're listening clearly," Nacchio said. "There are no accounting issues or im-proprieties in Qwest's financial reports. Let me repeat that. There are no ac-counting issues or improprieties in our reports." In explaining why he felt com-pelled to hold the conference call, he said, "innuendos on our integrity are not going to be tolerated, irregardless of who makes them, including what I used to believe was a reputable branded firm, Morgan Stanley."