In 1983, in a small bar in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Bernard Ebbers developed the business concept that would become the second largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, WorldCom (Romar and Calkins ). In 2002, the company founded by Bernard Ebbers declared the largest bankruptcy in US history. The unethical and illegal accounting treatments in which WorldCom participated ultimately led to the demise of the company and a new company, MCI, that arose from the rubble of what was WorldCom. Two major issues put pressure on senior executives at WorldCom to engage in fraud. WorldCom became the second largest long-distance telephone company by implementing a very aggressive acquisition strategy (Moberg and Romar). During the years 1991 to 1997, WorldCom completed 65 acquisitions, the most notable being that of MFS Communications and MCI Communications (Moberg and Romar). At the height of WorldCom's power, their stock was trading at over $60 per share (Moberg and Romar). As the company's stock continued to rise, WorldCom continued to acquire companies (Moberg and Romar). However, mergers and acquisitions create significant managerial challenges (Moberg and Romar). The first challenge is to merge the newly acquired company and the existing company to create a single, fully functioning company (Moberg and Romar). This process can take a long time, and WorldCom executives didn't seem to have the time needed. The second challenge is to take into account the financial aspects of the acquisition (Moberg and Romar). During this process, all assets, debts, goodwill, and many other financial information must be… in the center of the paper… nsylvania. March 14, 2011 .Katz, David and Julia Homer. “Cynthia Cooper, the WorldCom Whistleblower.” February 1, 2008. CFO.com. March 15, 2011 .Moberg, Dennis and Edward Romar. "WorldCom." 2003. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. February 2, 2011 .Pulliam, Susan and Deborah Solomon. “How Three Unlikely Investigators Exposed Fraud at WorldCom.” October 30, 2002. The Wall Street Journal Online. February 2, 2011 .Romar, Edward J. and Martin Calkins. “WorldCom Case Study 2006 Update.” February 2006. Markula Center for Applied Ethics. February 2 2011 .