Thursday March 16, 5:37 pm Eastern Time
Iridium Receives Many Bid Offers
By DAVID E. KALISH
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Several bidders, including a California telephone entrepreneur, have submitted offers for Iridium LLC in a last-ditch effort by the satellite-based mobile phone company to save itself by midnight Friday.
It wasn't clear late Thursday whether a credible buyer could be found in time to keep Iridium's 66 satellites in orbit. Motorola Corp. (NYSE:MOT - news), Iridium's creator and biggest investor, was prepared at 11:59 p.m. Friday to shut down Iridium, soon disconnecting its customers and letting the satellites burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
Iridium and its investors were reviewing several bids to see whether to submit them to a New York bankruptcy court on Friday, a source familiar with the proceedings said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The bidders were not disclosed.
One bidder to come forth was Gene Curcio, owner of Los Angeles-based Crescent Communications Inc., a privately held telecommunications company. Curcio was finalizing details crucial to its offer, said Sa'id Mosteshar, a lawyer for Curcio.
Mosteshar declined to give the size of his client's offer, or the names of investors in the bid. But Curcio wants Motorola to agree to continue operating Iridium's satellites for another 60 to 90 days, the lawyer said.
``We are close to an agreement,' Mosteshar said. Spokesmen for Motorola and Iridium declined to comment.
After the three-month period, Curcio has arranged for General Dynamics Corp. to take over operation of the satellites. Curcio plans to use the Iridium system to provide mobile-phone service in areas of the world poorly served by land-based phones, such as in remote parts of Brazil, Africa and the Middle East.
Iridium, which has mustered only 50,000 subscribers since launching service in the fall of 1998, has debts of about $4.4 billion. |
