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

To: E'Lane who wrote (2502)	12/5/1999 5:21:00 PM
From: E'Lane	Respond to of 2693

I called Schwab last week to inquire as to "what was going on" with IRIDQ.They did some research and informed me that there was an article in Bloomberg where the deal was "done" with McCaw and Iridium. I could find NO such article on Bloomberg at that time. Perhaps someone else can? I did find some interesting items when researching Craig McCaw. Consider the above "hearsay" until someone can find the link. Vol and price would suggest "something" is going on, IMO. Will we be number 2 to be "saved"?? spaceviews.com McCaw, Teledesic Lead Investment into ICO Satellite Service Published: 1999 November 7 8:16 am ET (1316 UT) Teledesic co-founder Craig McCaw announced last week that investments arranged by him and two of his companies, including Teledesic, will provide troubled satellite company ICO the funding it needs to start its service. In a November 1 announcement, ICO revealed that McCaw was leading an international group of investors that would pump $1.2 billion into ICO by the middle of 2000, enough funding for the company to launch its fleet of up to 12 satellites that would provide global phone service. The funding would also allow the company to escape from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that the company filed for in late August, when earlier efforts to raise funding came up short. "This financing agreement provides us with a clear path to exit from Chapter 11," said ICO CEO Richard Greco. "Now we can move forward aggressively with our plans to complete our system and launch our global mobile voice and data services." The funding to ICO will be completed in three stages. An initial infusion of $225 million of "debtor-in-possession" financing, where investors loan the company funds and is repaid in equity in the company. A second round of $275 million would be completed by January 2000, and a final round of $700 million would be underwritten by McCaw and affiliated by the second quarter of 2000. The announcement reveals McCaw and his companies, Teledesic and Eagle River Investments, as the "strategic investors" that signed letters of intent to last month to provide $225 million to ICO. The identity of those investors was not revealed in that October 20 announcement. Teledesic had previously suggested that the company was interested in investing in either ICO or Iridium, another troubled satellite communications company that filed for Chapter 11 protection in August. Such investments would allow the company to enter the market earlier than if it waited for the deployment of its own system. Moreover, neither ICO nor Iridium, which provide global telephone service, would directly compete with Teledesic, which aims to provide high-speed data communications. "Our investment in ICO marks the first step in our strategy to widen the technological tools at our disposal and serve a broader group of customers," McCaw said in a statement announcing the ICO investment. At the same time McCaw announced his investment into ICO, Teledesic received additional funding of its own. The Abu Dhabi Investment Company, based in the Middle Eastern country of Abu Dhabi, said it would lead a $121 million investment into Teledesic. Teledesic has now raised over $1.5 billion.