The CEO is delivering the kind of savings and synergies he promised…

If anyone doubts that MCI WorldCom CEO B. Ebbers really wants to run a lean and mean company, he or she should pay a visit to an airplane hangar outside Washington, D.C. Sitting on the tarmac are two top-of-the-line Falcon corporate jets that WorldCom picked up when it bought MCI last year. Ebbers is not planning to take the planes up for a spin: He is selling them, along with a WorldCom jet, as part of a cost-cutting blitz that has Wall Street buzzing. Analysts and money managers consider it strong evidence that Ebbers is delivering the kind of savings and synergies he promised when WorldCom outmaneuvered British Telecom and GTE to take over MCI. Indeed, the stock has been among the leaders of Wall Street_s recent surge, rising more than 25% since early December. In just the first week of 1999 it moved up from $70 to $75 after Salomon Smith Barney telecom guru Jack Grubman raised his 12-month target price from $80 to $100. Ebbers is not putting all his faith in one-time cost cuts to make his numbers. Far more important, he is also focusing on the hottest areas in telecom--such as local and international calling and data--to guarantee long-term revenue and profit growth. At least a third of U.S. Internet traffic now flows over MCI WorldCom_s network, analysts say, and overall revenue from Internet communications should jump by 60% in 1999. In the next year the company_s total profits are expected to rise by more than 40%.