When Jack Grubman gets employment with a non-Wall Street firm, and actually has to meet a payroll, I'll pay attention to what he says about telecommunications companies.
Seems to me an analyst named Robert Kaimowitz, first at Unterberg, who went to and is now at ING, was "aggressively negative" (to use Grubamn's language) on Iridium two years ago. He was so unconventional (back then anyway) as to state that Iridium would never make money. Would not make a dime. At the time Mr. Watts was telling us, along with Mr. O'Neill of Soundview, that Iridium would be a goldmine (I paraphrase, of course). Dustbin seems more like it.
I thought at the time that Kaimowitz was overstating his case. Thought it was sour grapes rhetoric, actually. He turned out to be right-- dead right. Kaimowitz has a buy rating on Globalstar.
No, this analyst at ING never had to meet a payroll either. However, I don't recall Grubman ever saying Iridium would never make money. In fact, Grubman never did. And I would love the names of the ten people he cites who says the Iridium phones didn't work. Quite frankly, I think old Jack is "fibbin'" on this one.
He's made some bad calls costing investors money (myself among them), his Institutional Investor ranking aside. |
