I know the issue of conflict of interest wrt BLS has come up earlier. A question I have is the deal with Connexion. Boeing needs Geo transponders to make Connexion work. Loral provides same. IFN, in addition to G* Leos also plans on using Geo transponders for down link of large files. Has BLS signed a deal for Geo transponders with IFN yet on behalf of Loral? If I recall correctly, NewsCorp has lots of Geo sat capacity available to it, but all from competitors of LOR.
How about the entire concept of LOR getting into bed with Boeing, a direct competitor of IFN. That has troubled me since it was announced. The tenor of the article posted earlier suggests to me that BLS has mentally cast G* adrift - and is putting his efforts (and personal money, given recent stock purchases)into LOR. That also suggests to me that Q*, not BLS, has pushed to bring in the Blackstone Group.
G* is a technological tour de force. LOR didn't make it that way, and neither did VOD - but Q* did. BLS has butchered this project beyond salvaging. The SP's through neglect or design - makes no difference - have seen to G*s demise in current form. The sooner we get back to the roots of the technology, and management that knows how to leverage superior technology, the sooner G* will rise from the ashes.
As a former equity holder in G*, I'm more than a little upset about how this project has been mismanaged - and that extends from SPs through and including LOR/BLS. During this flame out I've watched what I believed then, and still believe to be, a viable real world technological wonder run into the ground. All the time having to put up with sanctimonious posts about "it's another Iridium", or "Inmarsat does it just as well." What a crock. The nay sayers were right, but most of them for all the wrong reasons. I want my revenge. I want the technology marketed by a company that knows how to market this stuff. I want Q* running the show.
As a current creditor of G* (hey guys, when 'ya gonna send me that interest payment now over due <vbg>) I'm most interested in protecting my collateral. Unlike pcstel, I'm real sure it includes those gateways. I see it as a working system, and I want to see new management and the elimination or extreme reduction in the roles of VOD and LOR. I've paid dearly for their incompetence. I want them out. I'd rather take my nickel on the dollar in a straight liquidation than accept collateral from a "new" G* that included the likes of BLS and VOD as decision makers. LOR can keep pushing the fart button on the sats to keep them aligned, and VOD can keep the gateways running if they don't mind Sprint and IFN and every other possible consumer of MOUs having access to them at minimal cost. Otherwise, bring in a new engineer to push the buttons; and return those gateways to G* via the BK court. They'll be assigned a pennies on the dollar valuation, any way. Worth nil, as I understand it. No customers, now no sats to service them. Hand 'em over VOD - maybe the new G* will buy them for a nickel on the dollar - assuming the BK judge doesn't find a breach of fiduciary duty to the partnership so extensive he decides to have you mail a check with the gateways.
Needless to say, I'm pissed. My G* holding has been gutted. LOR and VOD had better be equally gutted in any new G* proposal, or I'm voting to put the whole thing up for sale. I can always buy an equity stake in the successor company, should it be one I have any confidence in. No VOD and no Loral would be a good starting point. Hello, Mr. Q*.
Pierre |
