and i couldn't even tell you how fast that growth was. >> a year and a half later, bernie ebbers moved from partner to president. under ebbers' watch, "ldds" goes on a buying spree, snapping up other long distance carriers throughout the south. and in just ten years, the little company that was born in a mississippi diner has grown into one of the world's largest telecom companies, with the market capitalization of $6 billion. ebbers gives the company a new name... "worldcom." a name that seems to fit ebbers' outsized personality. >> he was sort of this brazen guy who just started doing all these acquisitions-- buying, you know, smaller companies. all of a sudden, he went for the big kahuna, which was "mci" and swallowed it, and everybody was sort of amazed because this was this tiny, you know, brash, little company in mississippi buying "mci" which was a household name. >> "worldcom" has seven billion in annual revenue, a fraction of the annual revenue of it's take over target, "mci" which brings in 18 billion. >> in business news, several federal agencies are going to work reviewing