Dear Readers, I have separated myself from my position in Globalstar.
After being a 7 Year Investor, which Bernie would surely consider long enough, I have given up.
Last year, I sold all my Globalstar Telecommunications Limited shares. Subject 34482 In the last week or so, I have sold all of my Globalstar Senior Notes, which I bought after selling all my shares. I had wanted to retain a position in a great asset which should have had, and still could have, great success.
But I have given up.
Days, weeks, months and years are rolling by with seemingly little serious intention to make Globalstar's system the success it should be.
This is a sad event for me. Globalstar was never just an investment for me. Globalstar to me represented a manifestation of human dreams and achievement. Of course such a great thing should also be extremely profitable or it wouldn't be a great manifestation of human dreams and achievement.
Globalstar was the reality of worldwide, instantaneous, high-quality communications - not in the first constellation of course, but by 2010 the world should have been totally covered in CDMA from Globalstar. Maybe some new owner will go on to achieve that dream - I hope that new owner is me.
It is now 6 years since I joined SI [almost to the day] and nearly 11 years since first coming across QUALCOMM who delighted me a couple of years later by announcing their interest in creating Globalstar. Since the mid 1980s, during my BP Oil days, I'd been keen on satellite links to trucks, cars, [and boats, trains, aircraft and so on] - I'd thought it would be a great investment for BP Oil, which is closely involved in the transport business. Time flies.
I have spent many thousands of dollars visiting Globalstar gateways, San Jose HQ, Telecom99, QUALCOMM Globalstar people and so on. I have spent thousands of hours in cyberspace, learning about it, monitoring it and ranting! I've paid up for rights issues and bought Tonka Truck loads of stock. All to no avail.
There are only about 70,000 users who only use 30 minutes a month [or whatever the current figures are]. 2 million minutes a month of a possible [first constellation] 1000 million is pathetic. That is abject failure. Millions of people are foregoing convenient, high-quality communications because those running Globalstar didn't understand how it should be sold and refused to change their plans when failure of their initial ideas was obvious.
Many people have died who would otherwise have lived if they had had Globalstar service - that's a concealed opportunity cost which is unrecognized because so few people are aware of what could have been. Untold waste and expense has been incurred by other potential subscribers who could have easily and cheaply solved their problems if Globalstar had been reasonably priced, which it could have been if priced correctly. GG [Globalstar Greed] meant few subscribers signed up.
I'm disappointed by the apparent lack of response by Globalstar to the proposal for urgent redesign of the marketing approach which was promoted by Ken Peterson and creditors. Message 17194467
Price elasticity here: siliconinvestor.com
Perhaps ATC [Ancillary Terrestrial Component] spectrum re-use will provide some asset value to attract investment from a terrestrial service provider to work with Globalstar. Maybe not. I'm not interested in a terrestrial service, although I agree the spectrum should be re-used in terrestrial service when satellites are out of sight, or cheaper terrestrial service is available. ATC seems to me to be clutching at straws.
This has been a long and personal saga. Not all dreams end in success. Sometimes dreams fail due to deliberate sabotage, such as aircraft into the WTC. Sometimes they end due to bloody-minded obstinacy, sometimes due to ignorance, sometimes due to stupidity, sometimes due to bad luck, sometimes due to the dream being irrational pie-in-the-sky. I don't think Globalstar failed due to the last two.
My Easter rant here [repeated from Buy Range]: Message 17260395
It would be so pleasant if the good attributes of volitional human interaction could be a regular way of life. But the way of the world is far, far from that Nirvana. I dare say there are more guns, bombs, rockets, war-ships, war-boats and war-aircraft in existence right now than in all of human history combined. Certainly the explosive power is greater [though maybe the deterioration of nuclear weapon stockpiles has reduced the total megatonnage somewhat - which is some consolation].
Anyway, the outcome is that I now have no direct financial interest in Globalstar other than via my QUALCOMM shares.
It's been quite a saga.
You can get quotes for Senior Notes here:
debttraders.com
Many thanks to all contributors to Silicon Investor Globalstar discussions over the years. I have greatly appreciated your contributions.
Now, where do I buy shares in the revamped, debt-free, cash-rich Globalstar with the 10c a minute price? Meanwhile, I'm in Wheaties.
7 Minute Investor,
Mqurice
PS: This really deserves a much longer rant and a poem:
"Graveyard of Hope!" |
