Talk America Holdings Inc.

12020 Sunrise Valley Dr., Suite 250

Year founded: 1989

Industry: Telecommunications

Post 200 Category: Top 125 Companies

Revenue: $471.01 Million

Net Income/Loss: $36.81 Million

Earnings per share: $1.32

Dividend: n/a

Stockholder equity: $141.52 Million

Auditor: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Stock: TALK

Assets: $241.73 Million

Market capitalization: $178.72 Million

52-week high: 10.13 6/2/2004

52-week low: 4.96 9/30/2004

Chairman: Gabriel A. Battista

President and CEO: Edward B. Meyercord III

Employees: 1200

Local employees: 40

Description: Talk America provides local and long-distance telephone service. It uses its own long-distance telecommunications network and leases access to local telephone lines. Talk America has about 671,000 customers in 11 states: Maryland, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Texas and Pennsylvania.

Developments: Talk America is a survivor of the dot-com era. When many of its competitors were going into Chapter 11, the company was not only still alive but also profitable. The company hopes to boost revenue by selling packages that include high-speed or dial-up Internet service to its residential customers. Recently, however, the company has had regulatory and accounting trouble. The company scaled back its marketing — it advertises only in Michigan — after a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission that will end the discounts Talk America and other companies receive in leasing lines from the big regional phone companies. The company delayed announcing its fourth-quarter financial results after questions were raised in a review by the company's outside auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers. The company restated its 2003 and quarterly 2004 results to correct a number of accounting issues. The restatements did not significantly affect revenue or income.