It seems that unless Globalstar is very competitive, BEFORE competition gets the idea of actually launching anything, the sky will be crawling with satellites and prices per minute will be falling. Better to handle a 'monopoly' like Microsoft and charge a reasonable price than do an Apple and get too greedy, even if the technology is good.
Better to have a BIG chunk of apple pie at lower margins than a little chunk at high margins. Especially if doing so keeps competitors such as ICO hesitating at the door. Once they are in, they can't leave and the minutes will be sold at whatever price it takes to sell them.
Yes, McCaw sees an undercapitalized opportunity! By adding a couple $$bn more, ICO can work and if existing shareholders are bought out at $1 a share or so, then he can make heaps.
Well, Globalstar and the service providers could make him change his mind! Charge a cheap minute price and scare him off. Trouble is, at $1 a minute, demand for Globalstar might be huge and handset limited and he won't scare off! He'll go flat out to get into the business too. Maybe even at $1.50 that might be the case. I doubt it. But if so, I guess it won't matter much to me if he is in the business too. I might like it because then I could get satellite service in NZ from ICO.
Only 2 weeks to go and the 15 November hard launch which Bernie Schwartz said would be in action will swing into gear. After a week of selling, the people selling the handsets will know whether they have got a monster, a loser or just a regular business on their hands.
Shareholders won't be told anything by the look of it so insiders will have the inside track. We'll know about 20 November from the share price movement how the handset sales and minute sales are going.
I think Globalstar should publish a graph on their Web site of minutes used every day. Yes, every day. And by the hour too. Minute by minute! World total minutes sold. The SEC should demand it in fairness to all shareholders.
It would be such a popular Web site, they could sell banner space on it to advertisers. $1 a click is the going rate for many ad spaces these days where the sites are closely linked to clicker interests.
I'd be giving it a lot of clicks!
Maurice |
