Back to press releasesNEWARK, NJ–December 18, 2001 – IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT and IDT.B) today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a new stock repurchase program providing for the repurchase of up to fifteen million (15,000,000) shares of Class B Common Stock and up to five million (5,000,000) shares of Common Stock. IDT’s Class B Common Stock and Common Stock both trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols “IDT.B” and “IDT’, respectively. Shares of Class B Common Stock are entitled to one-tenth of a vote per share and shares of Common Stock are entitled to one vote per share. In other respects shares of Class B Common Stock and Common Stock carry identical entitlements. There are currently 47,525,841 shares of IDT Class B Common Stock outstanding and 23,304,003 shares of IDT Common Stock outstanding.
The Board of Directors also authorized the termination of IDT’s previous Common Stock repurchase program, under which IDT repurchased from May 19, 2000 through November 6, 2001 a total of approximately 15.6 million shares. Approximately 7.1 million of those shares were repurchased prior to the distribution of IDT’s Class B Common Stock dividend in May 2001 and the remainder were repurchased after the distribution of the Class B Common Stock dividend.
“At a time when many companies only talk of increasing shareholder value through stock buybacks, but rarely follow through, IDT is pleased to report on the success of its first stock repurchase program and to announce a new program,” said Jim Courter, IDT CEO and Vice Chairman. “With a strong cash position and a balance sheet that is the envy of the telecom industry, we are confident about IDT’s future and pleased to have the opportunity to further enhance shareholder value.”
The purchases will be made from time to time as market and business conditions warrant, in open market, negotiated or block transactions. All purchases are subject to the availability of shares at prices which are acceptable to IDT, and, accordingly, there is no guarantee as to the timing or number of shares to be repurchased.
As of December 13, 2001, IDT’s principal stockholders were Howard S. Jonas, who beneficially owned approximately 27.3% of the outstanding shares, representing approximately 58.8% of the aggregate voting power of all outstanding stock, Liberty Media Group, which beneficially owned 10,360,303 shares of IDT’s Class B Common Stock representing 14.4% of the outstanding shares and nearly 2% of the aggregate voting power of all outstanding stock, and AT&T Corp., which beneficially owned 1,360,545 shares of IDT’s Class B Common Stock representing approximately1.9% of the outstanding shares and nearly 3% of the aggregate voting power of all outstanding stock.
IDT CORPORATION
IDT is a leading facilities-based, multinational carrier that provides a broad range of telecommunications services to its retail and wholesale customers worldwide.
Through its own national telecommunications backbone and fiber optic network infrastructure, IDT provides its customers with integrated and competitively priced international and domestic long distance telephony and prepaid calling cards. IDT Ventures is the IDT subsidiary responsible for the Company’s initiatives outside of its core telecom business. Through its IDT Investments subsidiary, IDT has equity interests in several telecom and Internet-related companies.
Except for historical information, all of the expectations and assumptions contained in the foregoing are forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, involving risks and uncertainties. These statements refer to our plans to implement our growth strategy, improve our financial performance, expand our infrastructure, develop new products and services, expand our customer base and enter international markets. The forward-looking statements also include our expectations concerning factors affecting the markets for our products, including the demand for long distance telecommunications, and Internet access services. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results that we anticipate. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to , those risks discussed in this release. In addition to the factors specifically noted in the forward-looking statements, other important factors that could result in those differences include (a) general economic conditions in the telecommunications and Internet markets, including inflation, recession, interest rates, and other economic factors; (b) casualty to or other disruption of our facilities and operations; (c) those discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended July 31, 2001; and (d) other factors that generally affect the business of telecommunications, Internet and other communications companies. We assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from the results anticipated in the forward-looking statements.
