E. Haiken, you ask the right questions: "who is going to buy the 45 million + shares owned by Lockheed or who the partners
of Cyberstar are going to be?"
If we find out in the nearest future that McCaw, MSFT, T and/or GE are buying out LMT at a discount and simultaneously investing big money in the broadband initiative, I'm sure we'll all be singing Bernard's praises (again). Absent that, I think BLS and long time shareholders have a real problem on their hands. We have a lot of new owners this week who will feel very well rewarded, even brilliant, if a tender offer is made in the low to mid twenties. I know most of us on this board won't feel too good about that, but the longer this stock trades where it is, the harder it will be to prevent a takeover at a very disappointing price. I have been really appalled at BLS's inability to articulate the Loral BP recently; I have a faint hope it's part of a planned twofer to get rid of LMT at a low price while letting in a new strategic investor with bucks to spare for Broadband. But the hope grows fainter with every passing day.
Meanwhile, in preparation for the upcoming s/h meeting, I took a look at last year's proxy statement. Couldn't help but notice the average age of our board this year will be 71. BLS is 74. Oddly enough the three Directors up for election this year are the "babies" at 65, 66, and 68. Also noted that shareholders' proposals "intended to be presented at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Company must be received by the Company not before March 9, 2000 nor after April 6, 2000."
There may be some pretty unpleasant proposals in draft form even as we speak.
|
