(Bloomberg) ? Bermuda-based Global Crossing Ltd., operator of a high- speed fibre-optic network for transmitting telephone calls and data, said its second-quarter loss narrowed to $75 million on cost cutting.

The net loss shrank to $3.37 a share from $107 million, or $4.86, a year earlier, the company said today in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Sales declined 21 percent to $499 million Global Crossing said.

Chief executive officer John Legere, 47, has slashed costs and sold businesses to stem sliding sales of long-distance calls. Gross margin, or the portion of revenue left after production costs, rose to 38 percent from 28 percent a year earlier. Global Crossing, co-founded by Gary Winnick in 1997, emerged from bankruptcy in 2003 and is shifting its focus to managing networks for big companies.

"Our core business is growing as we de-emphasise the lower-margin services," Legere said in a statement.

Shares of Global Crossing rose 23 cents to $18.17 at 4:30 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading, before the company disclosed its results. They've risen 54 percent since May 10, when the company reported first-quarter results.

Global Crossing, run out of Florham Park, New Jersey, declared bankruptcy in January 2002 when it was unable to pay $12 billion in debt. Singapore Technologies Telemedia Pte paid $250 million for a 62 percent stake to help the company exit bankruptcy.

Global Crossing last year restated results after it discovered weaknesses in the supervision of accounting personnel and a lack of control over bad-debt estimates.

Revenue dropped because sales at the company's carrier division, which handles long-distance calls, plummeted 39 percent to $197 million from a year earlier.

Sales of data services to large companies rose 4.2 percent to $274 million. Global Crossing is seeking business from companies by first offering so-called virtual private networks and then adding services to transmit video and calls.

Global Crossing used $53 million in cash from operations during the first half of the year, compared with $123 million used in the year-earlier period. The company in May had said its "cash burn" would diminish significantly in the remainder of the year.

Unrestricted cash and cash equivalents totalled about $305 million at the end of June, compared with $277 million at the end of March.

One reason for the increase in cash was that Legere completed the sale of the company's Trader Voice business to WestCom Corp. in May for $25 million in cash. He's also selling the small business group this quarter to Platinum Equity Holdings LLC for $40.5 million in cash.