|
When a broker receives an order for a stock considered by his firm as speculative, the broker will generally execute the order with the notation "unsolicited" to protect against the customer later regretting the purchase. Obviously the burden is on the customer, not the broker. In this connection, Iridium looks dangerous and is not likely to be viable in the long run. Globalstar, however, has a lot going for it besides superior technology. Management, for one, and keen investment savvy by its principal owners, QUALCOMM and Loral, for another. That the president of G* bought 100,000 shares earlier this month, bringing his total holdings to 800,000 does not hurt investment prospects. But since I'm a bit more conservative, I still like the junk bonds. They may qualify as junk, but with major owners QCOM and LOR holding the common stock, I doubt they want to see a default on the bonds. The yield to maturity is close to 20 percent, but because the bonds aren't regularly traded, it is sometimes difficult to buy them. Another way to play the G* fortunes is simply to hold QCOM, which receives contract business from G*. |
