That collection of quotes and comments did make me feel queasy. Good point <Maybe what Globalstar needed was a CEO whose "most important activity" EVERYDAY was Globalstar's progress? >
Globalstar is a like Eurotunnel which has apparently finally paid its first dividend to shareholders.
Eurotunnel was an extremely high cost project, all capital, low operating cost, like Globalstar.
A colleague and I used to debate whether it should have been built [before they started building it] and we decided it was a make work project to transfer money from shareholders and creditors to the builders.
That's what it turned out to be. Globalstar was partly that too, though I do think Qualcomm really thought it was a great idea. Maybe Bernie did too though I suspect he saw it more as a cash flow opportunity. Qualcomm, and therefore me, is still in. So I DO own some GSAT now that I think about it. Cool! Unfortunately, not bought at 28c but c'est la vie.
I really like Eurotunnel, but the cost and marketing were poor. They should have given heavy discounts for a few years to build traffic really quickly, getting people used to the thing and establishing infrastructure to use it [such as warehouses or whatever was needed].
When the full capacity of something is turned on with a bang, like Globalstar and Eurotunnel, filling it to over flowing quickly is essential. That means providing a huge consumer surplus which is what gets customer juices flowing and crowds forming rapidly.
It's not like Zenbu or a new netbook design which can expand from small sales slowly, gaining market share a bit at a time, while staying profitable. When $billions are thrown into space or into a hole in the ground all at once to get the thing going, time is of the essence and very rapid gaining of customers is essential.
To expand into Cook Islands didn't cost Zenbu a $10 million gateway. We gave them a free sample $100 router to try out. They like it, so now they start buying. It's profitable from day 1 with investment of US$100 which has already been recovered with the sale of the second router. Zenbu has DOUBLED market share in a week!
It would be nice to have Globalstar gateways in Cook Islands, Fiji, Hawaii, Seychelles, New Zealand.
Mqurice |
