New WorldCom chief spurned Microsoft: report

NEW YORK - WorldCom's new chief executive, Michael Capellas, who is the former president of Hewlett-Packard, is said to have turned down the number three job at Microsoft on Thursday, according to a report in the online edition of the New York Times.

Capellas was approached by Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, to be the company's president and chief operating officer, on Monday, after it became known that he was in the running for the job at WorldCom, the report said.

Capellas, 48, was named the head of WorldCom yesterday (NZ time), as the bankrupt telecommunications company tries to rid itself of accounting scandals and retain customers.