An Empire Builder's Legacy

He burst into the popular imagination as an empire builder, buying a disparate series of businesses and melding them into a giant conglomerate.

But his legacy is only now being written: Fraud led to the empire's being broken up, and now the remaining shards are posting multibillion-dollar losses.

The latest remnant of L. Dennis Kozlowski's Tyco to report results, Tyco Electronics, said today that it lost $1.37 billion in its first quarter as a stand-alone company. Most of that loss was attributed to the cost of settling class-action lawsuits and corporate restructuring forced by the problems revealed by Kozlowski's prosecution.

Just yesterday, Tyco International, the former parent company, said it lost $3.55 billion in the first quarter. Most of that -- $3 billion -- was set aside to settle claims of shareholders who say they were cheated when Kozlowski and other executives inflated Tyco's value and then looted the company.

by Mark Stein

Related Links

• Tyco Electronics: Tyco Electronics Reports Third Quarter Financial Results
• Tyco International: Tyco International Reports Third Quarter Earnings