owners of earthlink (the ISP)?

Reading about the trial in France (Marseilles) of 7 followers of Dianetics (scientology) for fraud, I looked up some information on scientology on the Internet.

I read on a web page the statement by a former scientologist that the scientology organization is the owner of Earthlink, the Internet Service Provider. Could anyone help me find out the truth about this statement?

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Jacques Kilchoer
Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.

[Contestant #3]

Earthlink is the ISP service offered by the telecommunications corporation known as Sprint.

As far as I'm aware Sprint is a publicly-held company, and is not owned by just a single person.

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Contestant #3

[manhattan]

Actually, the largest owner is that Krypto-Scientologic-Military-Industrial-Illuminati Organization known as (drumroll, please)

…Sprint

From ELNK’s Proxy Statement at the SEC Website. (Oh, did I mention that it’s a public company?)

AMOUNT AND NATURE OF
BENEFICIAL PERCENT OF
NAME AND ADDRESS OF BENEFICIAL OWNERS(1) OWNERSHIP(2) CLASS
- ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------- -------------

Sky D. Dayton............................................. 2,819,572(3) 8.8%
Reed E. Slatkin........................................... 1,803,366(4) 5.6
Kevin M. O'Donnell........................................ 1,706,032(5) 5.3
Sidney Azeez.............................................. 251,560(6) *
Charles G. Betty.......................................... 424,234(7) 1.3
Linwood A. Lacy, Jr....................................... 68,437(8) *
Robert M. Kavner.......................................... 101,162(9) *
Paul McNulty.............................................. 770,167(10) 2.4
William T. Esrey.......................................... 12,004,125(11) 29.5
Len J. Lauer.............................................. 12,004,125(12) 29.5
Dr. Richard D. Edmiston................................... 22,750(13) *
William S. Heys........................................... 8,700(14) *
Grayson L. Hoberg......................................... 34,562(15) *
David R. Tommela.......................................... 20,250(16) *
Brinton O.C. Young........................................ 117,500(17) *
Sprint Corporation........................................ 12,004,125(18) 29.5
Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co, LLC.............................. 3,153,856(19) 9.9
All directors and executive officers as a group
(15persons)............................................. 20,152,417(20) 48.8


- ------------------------

* Represents beneficial ownership of less than 1% of our common stock.

(1) Except as otherwise indicated by footnote (i) the named person has sole
voting and investment power with respect to all shares of common stock shown
as beneficially owned, and (ii) the address of the named person is that of
EarthLink.

(2) Beneficial ownership is determined in accordance with the rules of the SEC,
based on factors including voting and investment power with respect to
shares, subject to applicable community property laws. Shares of common
stock subject to options or warrants exercisable within 60 days of March 31,
1999 are deemed outstanding for the purpose of computing the percentage
ownership of the person holding such options or warrants, but are not deemed
outstanding for computing the percentage ownership of any other person.

(3) Includes options to purchase 50,000 shares of common stock.

(4) Includes (i) warrants to purchase 365,000 shares of common stock and (ii)
24,148 shares of common stock held in trust for Mr. Slatkin's minor
children.

7

(5) Includes (i) 15,076 shares of common stock by Mr. O'Donnell's son, and (ii)
warrants to purchase 365,000 shares of common stock. Mr. O'Donnell disclaims
beneficial ownership of the shares of common stock held by his son and the
shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of options held by his son.

(6) Includes 62,503 shares of common stock held by Mr. Azeez's family.

(7) Includes options to purchase 257,500 shares of common stock.

(8) Includes options to purchase 20,000 shares of common stock.

(9) Includes warrants to purchase 6,668 shares of common stock and options to
purchase 60,000 shares of common stock.

(10) Includes 633,440 shares held of common stock by Quantum Industrial Partners
LDC whom Mr. McNulty represents on the Company's Board, and 136,727 shares
of common stock held by Soros Fund Management LLC for whom Mr. McNulty
serves as Managing Director. Mr. McNulty disclaims beneficial ownership of
such shares.

(11) Includes 3,192,088 shares of common stock, 4,102,941 shares of Series A
convertible preferred stock convertible into 8,205,882 shares of common
stock and 606,155 shares of Series B convertible preferred stock convertible
into 606,155 shares of common stock beneficially owned by Sprint and which
Mr. Esrey and Mr. Lauer may be deemed to beneficially own.

(12) Includes 3,192,088 shares of common stock, 4,102,941 shares of Series A
convertible preferred stock convertible into 8,205,882 shares of common
stock and 606,155 shares of Series B convertible preferred stock convertible
into 606,155 shares of common stock beneficially owned by Sprint and which
Mr. Esrey and Mr. Lauer may be deemed to beneficially own.

(13) Includes options to purchase 18,750 shares of common stock.

(14) Includes options to purchase 7,500 shares of common stock and warrants to
purchase 1,200 shares of common stock.

(15) Represents options to purchase 34,562 shares of common stock.

(16) Represents options to purchase 20,250 shares of common stock.

(17) Includes options to purchase 117,500 shares of common stock.

(18) Includes 3,192,088 shares of common stock, 4,102,941 shares of Series A
convertible preferred stock convertible into 8,205,882 shares of common
stock and 606,155 shares of Series B convertible preferred stock convertible
into 606,155 shares of common stock beneficially owned by Sprint and which
Mr. Esrey and Mr. Lauer may be deemed to beneficially own.

(19) Includes 2,792,756 shares held in customer accounts over which members
and/or employees of the named person have discretionary authority to dispose
of or direct the disposition of the shares, 348,900 shares held in accounts
owned by the members of the named person and their families and 12,200
shares held in the account of the profit sharing plan of the named person.

(20) Includes (i) options and warrants to purchase 1,302,868 shares of common
stock, and (ii) 101,727 shares of common stock owned by family members or
affiliates of certain members of the group.


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Livin' on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine

[manhattan]

Or, you could have just listened to C#3, who got ahead of me, postwise. Sorry.

[tanstaafl]

Actually, Earthlink founder Sky Dayton (the top stockholder on the list) is a Scientologist, which is probably where the information came from.

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"You can't run away forever; but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start." --- Jim Steinman

Dennis Matheson --- Dennis@mountaindiver.com
Hike, Dive, Ski, Climb --- www.mountaindiver.com (http://www.mountaindiver.com)

[Satan]

Ask them yourself:

Registrant:
EarthLink Network, Inc. (EARTHLINK2-DOM)
3100 New York Drive
PASADENA, CA 91107

Domain Name: EARTHLINK.COM

Administrative Contact:
EarthLink Network, Domain Admin. (ELN-DA) hostmaster@EARTHLINK.NET
626-296-2400
Fax- 626-296-5113
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Earthlink Network, Domain Administrator (DAE4) dns-admin@EARTHLINK.NET
626-296-2400 (FAX) 626-296-5113
Billing Contact:
EarthLink Network, Domain Admin. (ELN-DA) hostmaster@EARTHLINK.NET
626-296-2400
Fax- 626-296-5113

Record last updated on 03-Nov-98.
Record created on 06-Dec-94.
Database last updated on 21-Sep-99 14:40:22 EDT.

Domain servers in listed order:

NS1.EARTHLINK.NET 207.217.126.41
NS2.EARTHLINK.NET 207.217.77.42
NS3.EARTHLINK.NET 209.179.179.19



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Yer pal,
Satan

[manhattan]

Well, for whatever it's worth, they announced this morning that they're merging with Mindspring, which was started by born-again Christians.

Should make for some fun board meetings.

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Livin' on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine

[Mazey]

I went to great lengths last night to cut/paste and then list all the larger owners of Earthlink based on manhattan's post...but last night, I couldn't post a response. All I'm suggesting is that you take another look at manhattan's post AND the numbers. The largest shareholder in Earthlink is NOT Sprint(who holds an equal number of shares as Esrey and Laurer)...it's "all directors and executive officers as a group-48.8%.

This is what happens when one looks at a pie chart but forgets to check out the numbers.

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"There will always be somebody who's never read a book who'll know twice what you know." - D.Duchovny

[manhattan]

You worthless piece of garbage, I’ve been a securities analyst for 10 years. You’re going to correct my read of a simple ownership disclosure chart? I don’t think so, Mr. "I read the text." I read these charts in my sleep, for Chrissake. Shit, I've written these charts.

You are the reason the SEC is making companies dumb down public filings to the point that there’s no information in them. Read the goddamn footnotes.

Since you’re obviously too stupid to understand a simple chart and its explanatory text, I’ll clue you in.

The "all directors and executive officers as a group" means, uh, "all directors and executive officers as a group." That includes Messrs. Esrey and Lauer, who are Sprint’s nominees to the Board of Directors. Footnotes 11, 12, and 18 talk about the fact that while Sprint owns the shares, Messrs. Esrey and Lauer are deemed to be beneficial owners under the relevant SEC disclosure rules. They don’t "hold an equal number of shares," the "hold" the same shares! Most people, seeing that the percentages add up to more than 100, would have done a cursory investigation before accusing me of not reading the numbers. In case you care, the numbers are also skewed because of options not yet exercised, the fact that Sprint owns both common shares and convertible preferred not yet converted into common, and some other things that you are obviously too thick to get.

Read the text, you hump!

Now slink back to e-trade and pay $250/share for some piece of crap internet stock



Sheesh!

Thank you to everyone who replied. I didn't think of looking up the SEC website because I'm not a stock buyer.

As far as asking them personally (as suggested by Satan), I didn't think that any company owned by the scientology organization would admit their affiliation to a casual enquirer, since that might be bad for business.



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Jacques Kilchoer
Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.

[Mazey]

manhattan, I assume your job forbids you working with the public. If it doesn't, it should. I'm also assuming you were rejected in any type of civil service work. If you've never applied, don't. There are nicer ways of pointing out errors, and I'm still not sure I made one. Doesn't matter, however, because whenever I see your post somewhere, I'll choose to ignore it.

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"There will always be somebody who's never read a book who'll know twice what you know." - D.Duchovny

[phouka]

*ahem*

Guys, I work for Mindspring. We found out about the merger with Earthlink a couple of days ago. I'm actually pretty excited. There won't be any layoffs, and we'll be big enough to take on AOL. Woohoo!

We've received several emails from Charles Brewer (CEO) to tell us what's going on. He's also addressed a couple of rumors - one of which was "they're going to make us become Scientologists!". The answer was, of course, "no, please don't be silly".

I don't know if Charles is born-again, but I will say that his company has been not just tolerant but open and active towards all religions/races/nationalities/sexes/etcetera.

This is the first place I've worked where I've felt comfortable with my coworkers knowing I'm a Pagan. I haven't asked for a Solstice off or anything, but I'm sure they'd give it to me.

[phouka]

*sigh*

Please make that ". . . open and active in accepting all religions . . . "

[pricciar]

Mazey:
There are nicer ways of pointing out errors, and I'm still
not sure I made one. Doesn't matter, however, because whenever I see your post somewhere, I'll choose to ignore it.


You choose to ignore him because he pointed out your error? Or is it because he was a little bit mean spirited. I would be mean spirited as well, if someone told me I didn't know how to read a pie chart.
C'mon, lighten up, and next time you tell someone they don't know what they are talking about, be prepared to deal with the consequences if you are wrong.
If you read the foot notes he pointed out, you would realize you were wrong. The fifteen people mentioned in "All directors and executive officers as a group" are the fifteen people listed above (minus, Esey and Lauer, who are only listed as both owning Sprint's shares).

Anyway.

phouka:

There won't be any layoffs, and we'll be
big enough to take on AOL. Woohoo!


I was surpised to hear how big the merged company is going to be. Any word on what it is going to be called?
They will have the size to challenge AOL, but, they have some work to catch up to the name recognition. For good, or ill, AOL is well known. I think Mindspring was doing a good job of getting their name out there, I have heard 3 or 4 radio broadcasters who were giving huge plugs to the company.
This shall be interesting.

pat

[Kat]

They're going to be called EarthLink. Or, at least, that's what EarthLink told me in their email announcement.

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"It's bacon!!"

[manhattan]

phouka, priccair, and Kat: Good luck taking on the monsters at AOL. As an investor in some of your infrastructure providers (can't say which, obviously), I'm definitely in your corner. I hope you realize that my comment about the board meetings was just a lighthearted send-up of people who tend to take Scientology (and born-again Christianity, for that matter) way too seriously when talking about secular matters such as internet access.

Mazey: Your first paragraph warranted a correction. Your second paragraph earned you a flame. You got one. Life's long. Move on.

As a peace offering, I'll fess up that I should have included a link to the entire proxy, but I forgot.

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Livin' on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine