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Technology Stocks : 2000: Y2K Civilized Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (103)	8/12/1999 12:47:00 AM
From: C.K. Houston	Respond to of 662

<IRID ... It's too big to fail... and besides, as I mentioned before, the Iridium system is the US govts backup communications system for Y2K contingency planning.> U.S. governments backup communications system for Y2K contingency planning? No, I didn't know that. Hmmm "Too big to fail." Seems I've heard those words before ... "In later cases, such as the Continental Illinois rescue of 1984 and that of the First Republicbank of Dallas in 1988, the FDIC deliberately removed all limit on guarantees in order to halt imminent runs, establishing the practical rule that some banks with deposits over $100,000 were "too big to fail. When push came to shove, the purpose of deposit insurance proved to be less taking care of the 'little man' with a deposit of under $100,000, than to prevent bank runs that would embarrass the system." Manias, Panics and Crashes - Pg 140 Actually IMHO a far better book that detailed the whole banking and S&L debacle, was a book called "Funny Money". Fascinating and funny. Unfortunately, it's out of print. Continental Illinois "achilles heal" was Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma. CEO and other officers of Penn Square made all kinds of major commercial real estate deals all over the place. CEO guaranteed many, many loans with his signature ... and nothing to back it up. He did deals with Continental Illinois. I wish I remembered the guy's name. When I was looking for financing for my marketing research company back in 1986, I flew up with a friend who introduced us. [I didn't realize what was going on then.] Anyway, we went to lunch. Got drunk. Lasted thru "Happy Hour". Did a bit of dancing. Then this guy tells me ... " You're sitting here drinking with the man, who has had more personal lawsuits filed against him ... than any other man in the United States! And, I'll probably be getting more. HA HA" "But, I put everything in my wife's name and a couple of my good friend's names a long time ago. No one's gonna get anything. HA HA" Say what??? And then he starts to tell me about all of these deals between Penn Square and Continental Illinois. He laughed, drank some more, And then he told me, "All it took was my signature. HA HA" "And, I was signing guarantees with nothing to back it up. HA HA" "I was greedy. They were greedy." "They'd come here wearing those little dark suits of theirs, with dollar signs in their eyes. Looked down at me like I was some cowboy hick. But they wanted what I could give 'em. Hll, they were as bad as I was." "Besides, they were too big to fail."* [That's where I first heard that phrase.] Remember, these were the oil & real estate hey days. This banker from Oklahoma, who helped bring Continental Illinois to their knees ... wore cowboy boots to work. When I got back to Houston and had dinner with some oil guys and mentioned this guys name. They all laughed, and told me to get that book, "Funny Money". BTW: Penn Square Bank was physically, a teeny-tiny bank in a strip shopping center! As I see all of these financial mega-mergers going on now, I wonder ... what would/could the FDIC do ... if one or two of these mega-banks were at the brink of failure. Is there realistically enough money to bail out any of these banks "because they're too big to fail"? Guess that's why FED got involved with LTCM last year, huh? "They're too big to fail." Now, we have Iridium LLC... who is also ... "Too big to fail" Iridium LLC, the cash strapped satellite-telephone company, which defaulted on bank loans totaling more than $1.5 billion after its lenders failed to extend today's deadline for the company to meet conditions. From Bloomberg Iridium's banks had granted three extensions, most recently in June, for the company to meet conditions on about $800 million in syndicated bank loans. Iridium also defaulted on a $750 million bank loan guaranteed by Motorola Inc., the biggest investor in the 66-satellite network ... The default is tied up in the wrangling over a restructuring of Iridium, which doesn't have the money to pay its debts after getting only a fraction of the subscribers it had promised. Iridium's banks, led by Chase Manhattan Corp., are trying to protect their own interests as Iridium negotiates a settlement with both its banks and bondholders techstocks.com The $800 million loan was arranged by Chase Manhattan and Barclays Plc and syndicated to 23 banks and institutional investors ... MORE "FUNNY MONEY". <It's too big to fail... and besides, as I mentioned before, the Iridium system is the US govts backup communications system for Y2K contingency planning. GHEEZ. It's worse than I thought. Guess government will be involved with this too. Cheryl

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (103)	8/12/1999 1:39:00 AM
From: C.K. Houston	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 662

This Iridium satellite deal, gets more and more interesting. And more serious. From Motorola SEC Filing: Excellent, detailed Y2K disclosure. Covers just about every base. EXCERPT: "The satellite business designs, develops, manufactures, integrates, deploys, operates and maintains space-based telecommunication systems and related ground system components. At present, the business consists of one operating system known as the Iridiumr System. This system contains date- sensitive functions. The business has made all necessary hardware and/or software upgrades available to customers by July 1, 1999. The business anticipates that it will need to supply technicians to install any such upgrades, and does not presently anticipate any difficulty in meeting any potential installation needs. "Management believes that the most reasonably likely worst case scenario related to the Year 2000 issue is a temporary interruption of the Iridium System due to the inability of the ground segment to communicate with the satellite constellation. [SEE MY NOTE BELOW.] As a result, the satellite business would incur costs in correcting such a failure. Management believes adequate efforts are in place to identify potential hardware/software problems and to implement and test solutions." "Some iDENr infrastructure products operate with date sensitivity. The iDEN system became Year 2000 Ready when a new system release was completed on June 30, 1999. While the business expects to deploy this release in a timely matter, it will confront the same resource and installation issues facing the Company's infrastructure businesses." ==================================================== NOTE: See my notes re ground control, from military PowerPoint presentation Message 9567593 New, Y2k-compliant software for ground control system isn't scheduled for delivery until September. At which time they'll begin testing prior to actual installation. Really cutting it close. If IRID had to declare bankruptcy, and then there's some kind of re-organization. If there were Y2K problems, who do people sue?? Besides Motorola and other hardware and software companies involved with these satellites. If they declare bankruptcy now, this would be one way to be "let off the hook" later - wouldn't it? Cheryl

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (103)	8/13/1999 2:39:00 PM
From: C.K. Houston	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 662

<IRID may become a buy pretty soon. It's too big to fail... and besides, as I mentioned before, the Iridium system is the US govts backup communications system for Y2K contingency planning.> They just halted trading. IRID filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Bondholder's refused to bail them out. <But just to let you know, IRID was only one of the communications contingency plans that the US govt has. They have their own emergency communications system (GETS) as well.> It's gonna be interesting to see how this plays out. Cheryl ================================================== IRIDIUM LLC, which runs the first global satellite-telephone network, is 86 percent-owned by 19 investors, which also include Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Co., Sprint Corp., American International Group Inc and Motorola. For those not familiar with Iridium, I've re-posted info from Motorola SEC filing: "Management believes that the most reasonably likely worst case scenario related to the Year 2000 issue is a temporary interruption of the Iridium System due to the inability of the ground segment to communicate with the satellite constellation." techstocks.com See my notes re ground control, from military PowerPoint presentation *New, Y2k-compliant software for ground control system isn't scheduled for delivery until September. At which time they'll begin testing* prior to actual installation.** Message 9567593 Really cutting it close.