Ok, it appears that NW offered to pay the FCC in full sometime in 1999,and had a viable reorganization plan:
As a result of NextWave's extensive financing efforts, aided substantially by the recovery of market conditions, NextWave has raised sufficient capital to pay in full for its Licenses, emerge from bankruptcy, and proceed expeditiously to offer its PCS network to consumers. NextWave is thus poised to fulfill the goals Congress sought to achieve in enacting the Bankruptcy Code and in mandating that portions of the spectrum be auctioned to small and startup businesses. On December 16, 1999, NextWave filed a modified plan of reorganization providing, inter alia, that the FCC would be paid in full, including all past-due amounts, penalties, and interest. RA5, 13, 271. On January 11, 2000, in an effort to avoid further litigation, NextWave submitted an enhanced proposal to the FCC, offering to satisfy all present and future obligations to the FCC through a lump sum cash payment in excess of $4.3 billion upon confirmation of the Plan. RA668-669.
Notwithstanding NextWave's ability and willingness to satisfy its full bid price obligations, on January 12, 2000-–only one day after NextWave's lump sum offer, and a mere nine days before scheduled plan confirmation--the FCC objected to confirmation. The FCC asserted for the first time that NextWave's Licenses "automatically canceled" at an unspecified date more than a year ago--a full eleven months prior to this Court's December 22 decision--ostensibly because NextWave had not made timely interest payments during the pendency of its bankruptcy case. RA700. The FCC also issued that same day a Public Notice, purportedly scheduling an auction of NextWave's Licenses for July 26, 2000. RA631. The FCC's "automatic cancellation" argument is contrary to law and categorically contradicts its past statements and actions in this case.
The above is from a brief NextWave filed against the FCC's petition for a writ of mandamus in the Second Circuit.
Don't know if the same market conditions exist. Surely, the value of the spectrum assures financing. In any event, the statement which I have boldened indicates that the reorganization plan's approval was about to take place when the FCC pulled the plug on NextWave.
No reason I've seen why a plan can't be implemented now. Nothing drastic has taken place.
OK, I agree, things look really good for NextWave if there is no more legal wrangling at Supreme Court level. Politics is now the arena, and the purpose is to try to get the FCC not to appeal.
Isn't that what JGoren said? -vbg- |
