A leading electronic newspaper has claimed that Leo Hindery's sudden departure from the top job at Global Crossing Ltd. heightened the already intense speculation that the Bermuda-based company is for sale.

Mr. Hindery's exit came just three weeks after Exodus Communications agreed to swap about 16 percent of its stock for Global Crossing's Web hosting unit GlobalCenter.

According to The Daily Deal, he was originally brought in from AT&T Corp. to run GlobalCenter. Mr. Hindery has agreed to go back to running the Web business until Exodus takes it over as expected early next year.

But the electronic business paper said without GlobalCenter, Global Crossing was almost a pure broadband play.

It quotes Yankee Group telecom analyst Karuna Uppal as saying that was important for telecommunications companies that may want to buy a global broadband network in the United States.

"There's more talk now that GlobalCenter is gone and Hindery is leaving, Mr.

Uppal said. "Since the company is focused on one core business, that makes it easier for someone to come in and buy it.'' The article said the move also made Global Crossing a less formidable player, quoting Andrew Hamerling, telecom analyst at Banc of America Securities.

It said although Exodus was required to use Global Crossing's cable lines for at least 50 percent of its traffic, Global would no longer be able to tailor GlobalCenter's expertise in Web-hosting and Internet traffic enabling, known as `co-location,' to meet its clients needs.

It quotes Mr. Hamreling as saying: "Long-haul to co-location is what will win in this game. If you don't have all of it, you're not gonna cut it.'' Analysts in the article also said Global Crossing's low stock price also made it a more manageable takeover target. Global Crossing's market capitalisation -- about $60 billion in February -- dropped to $18.76 billion on Wednesday after company chairman Gary Winnick announced Hindery's departure.

The article said that Global Crossing declined comment on the speculation and said during a conference call on Wednesday morning, Hindery strove to assure investors that his departure did not signal deeper internal problems at Global Crossing.