<ATHM shareholders got scrod worse than GSTRF shareholders>
CB, zero is a great leveler. Whether somebody paid $1 a share, $10, $100 or $1000, it's all the same when the price is zero.
The past couple of years have seen a most spectacular techwreck. I am consoled that the only real loss in Globalstar is the opportunity cost of about one year due to marketing mismanagement. With about $5 billion invested so far, that's only $500 million or so in actual costs, but a LOT more than that in opportunity cost [at $1 a minute which I guess is the equilibrium price of the current system when full]. Which is not a big deal in the context of Globalstar though it's a lot of money if found in a pile somewhere.
Globalstar LP shareholders [which include GSTRF] have done their dough. I don't believe they'll get any money back at all. But in actual value, the system is going to earn a huge return on capital by 2010 [which is about the life of the current constellation]. So, unlike many dot.bombs, which were bad ideas and the money is gone and the systems closed and there will never be a return on the capital deployed, Globalstar will not be a drain. It was and remains a good idea which will return high profits on the capital invested for the new owners of that capital. The losers are those who entrusted their capital to an inadequate management, marketing concept and contractual basis. That's me.
But I don't care too much because my Globalstar system will go on to provide a great service around the world. As they say, you can't take it with you and investing in great, but risky, ideas is a good thing to do with money. If it succeeds, that's great. If it fails and it was a waste of capital, that's a shame for all concerned [the equivalent of digging holes and filling them in again]. But if it fails as a business, but goes on to earn return on capital anyway, that's still okay. Somebody has to have the courage to do innovative stuff and risk some losses or we'd all stay threading beads, beating tom toms, living in teepees and wearing animal skins. Call me a philanthropist.
Mqurice |
