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Technology Stocks : IRID - Iridium World Communications IPO Announced! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dumbmoney who wrote (1940)	6/15/1999 3:38:00 PM
From: Marty Rubin	Respond to of 2693

Iridium Shares Surge After Motorola Official Backs Technology Minneapolis, June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of Iridium World Communications Ltd., which runs the first global satellite- telephone network, surged as much as 42 percent after a Motorola Inc. official expressed support for the cash-strapped company's technology. Iridium rose 1 1/4 to 6 5/8 in late trading of about 2.91 million shares, almost triple the three month daily average. The shares of Washington, D.C.-based Iridium, which traded at a record 72 3/16 in May 1998, touched 7 5/8. Iridium doesn't have the money to pay off $800 million it owes banks, which have extended credit to the company through the end of June. Significant developments will take place at the end of June or early July when the financing extension expires, Fred Tucker, executive vice president of Motorola, which is Iridium's biggest investor, said at the U.S. Bancorp. Piper Jaffray conference in Minneapolis. Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola,, which has an 18 percent stake in Iridium, wants to see a revised business plan before adding to the $1.67 billion in financial guarantees it already pledged to the company. ''We are going to be looking at business plans, and are in meetings now regarding marketing,'' Tucker said. ''The technology works well,'' according to Tucker, who said he used one of the company's cellular phones successfully from his boat and while traveling in Mexico. More information on the future of Iridium, which could be facing bankruptcy, will be forthcoming by July, Tucker said. ''A line has been drawn in the sand,'' he said. Jun/15/1999 15:20 (C) Copyright 1999 Bloomberg L.P.