PSINet Office in OKC will close

Friday, June 8th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The local PSINet office will apparently close, despite company assurances that no offices in the state would be shut down even though the company has declared bankruptcy.

Ashburn, Va.-based PSINet, which provides corporate Internet access and private networks, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last Friday, citing debts that nearly double its assets.

The company's Oklahoma City employees said between 30 and 40 of them got pink slips last month, indicating their jobs would end June 29.

PSINet spokesman Jason Thompson said he could neither confirm nor deny that, but a letter obtained by The Daily Oklahoman from PSINet to employees states ``recent events in the company and the change in the global business environment'' led to consolidating departments - including the Oklahoma City office, which handles technical calls and the internal e-mail.

The letter from the company said employees have the option of applying for PSINet positions elsewhere or accepting a severance package.

PSINet grew under a strategy of acquiring lots of companies, which in 1998 included Oklahoma City-based ioNET Inc.

In April 2000, PSINet consolidated its Internet service provider businesses and created Inter.net Global Ltd.

Inter.net integrated five companies formerly owned by PSINet into its Oklahoma City offices, said Tim Linville, Inter.net's regional marketing director.

The company also absorbed ioNET and closed offices of other acquired companies in Alabama and San Francisco, which moved to the Oklahoma City office.

Linville said PSINet's troubles are unrelated to Inter.net, which expects to grow from its 90 U.S. employees to nearly 1,000 worldwide employees.