IDT CEO: Winstar an "unbelievable deal"

IDT Corp. today announced that it has acquired the operating assets of Winstar Communications through auction in bankruptcy court for $ 30 million in cash and $ 12.5 million in IDT Class B common stock. As part of the plan, IDT also will invest $60 million into Winstar to be used as working capital

Winstar, which had filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year, will become part of a reorganized group within IDT that will include Net2Phone.

IDT also announced that it has named Charles Garner, CEO of IDT Ventures, as interim CEO for Winstar. Moshe Kaganoff has been named interim president.

Howard Jonas, CEO of IDT, said the price for Winstar, combined with the wiping out of its massive debt load will make the company profitable within a year.

“This is an unbelievable deal for us,” said Jonas. “We are not planning to pull back at all.”