CEO plays musical chairs ,Former MFS head takes new job with original backers

Company mergers often result in one too many chief executive officers. In the case of WorldCom's buyout of MFS late last year - shortly after MFS' buyout of UUNet - James Crowe of MFS was the odd CEO out.

In a little-publicized but predicted move, Crowe will no longer be involved in the day-to-day operations of WorldCom. Bernard Ebbers remains president and CEO, and John Sidgmore, former CEO of UUNet, is vice chairman and chief operating officer.

"Crowe will not have any direct operating responsibility but will continue to serve as a director and chairman of the board of the company," according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed in April about Crowe and WorldCom's agreement.

Less than two weeks ago, Crowe, 47, accepted a new job as president and CEO of Kiewit Diversified Group, a subsidiary of privately held Peter Kiewit Sons. PKS was the original company that put up $5 million to back Crowe's creation of MFS. MFS remained a unit of PKS until it was spun off as an independent, publicly held company in September 1995.

Although he will continue as chairman of the board of WorldCom, Crowe said he hasn't been involved in daily operations for several months.

While he skirted the issue of whether the decision was a mutual one, he repeated several times that there can be only one CEO.

"They've got an awfully strong management team, which you can tell by how well they've been doing," he said. "You only need one CEO. Bernie Ebbers paid the premium [to purchase MFS], and he got to choose. He chose himself. Bernie is the CEO, and that's how it should be.

Crowe's new job is running a group with interests in construction, mining, energy, infrastructure privatization and development, and telecommunications, including a controlling interest in competitive carrier C-TEC.

Although Crowe wouldn't comment on future projects, he did hint that he might not continue as chairman after the end of the year. Crowe's SEC-filed term of employment agreement with WorldCom will end on Nov. 23, 1997, although it may be extended by mutual agreement.

In most acquisitions, the surviving company chooses the leader and the merging leaders usually bow out unless they have employment agreements, said Frank Dzubeck, president of Communications Network Architects, Washington. "This is a natural event of an acquisition," he said.