WorldCom Inc. (NasdaqNM: WCOM - news) (WCOM) on Tuesday confirmed that Bernard J. Ebbers has resigned as chief executive of the once-tiny long distance company that he built into one of the world's largest telecommunications empires only to watch it fall.

The news was first reported in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal. Mr. Ebbers, who is 60 years old, reached his decision Friday under pressure from outside directors frustrated with the company's sinking stock price, controversy over Mr. Ebbers's $366 million personal loan from the company and the wide-ranging investigation of the company by the Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites). Mr. Ebbers offered to step down at a meeting with those directors Friday afternoon and continued discussions about it on Saturday. He formally turned in his resignation Monday.