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Technology Stocks : Loral Space & Communications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dougjn who wrote (3136)	5/19/1998 11:30:00 PM
From: Valueman	Respond to of 10852

Sorry to stray again, but if Galaxy IV is lost(24 ku and 24 C-band transponders), Loral will be able to raise lease rates in an already tight US Ku-band market. That will give them more money to pay off officials so they can sell more secrets to the King of Bhutan(are my facts straight? Close enough for the New York times I guess). Satellite Outage Hinders Pagers, TV Millions of Pagers Affected as Satellite Spins Out of Control By MATTHEW FORDAHL .c The Associated Press LOS ANGELES (May 19) - A communications satellite spun out of control Tuesday afternoon, interrupting service to most U.S. pager users and disrupting behind-the-scenes television transmissions across the country. Galaxy 4, which is operated by PanAmSat, started having problems about 3:30 p.m. EDT, said a company technician who asked not to be named. The company was still able to communicate with the satellite, and technicians hoped to restore its correct orbit. A spokesman for PageNet, one of several paging companies who services were interrupted, estimated that between 80 percent and 90 percent of all U.S. pager users were affected. The only customers not affected were those whose connections are through ground-based radio transmitters, said Scott Baradell, a spokesman for the Texas-based PageNet. Baradell said it would take about a day for his company to switch service to another satellite. ''You have to make adjustments to your system,'' he said. ''If it's at all possible to get Galaxy 4 back in service, that's much preferred.'' A woman who answered the phone at Greenwich, Conn.-based PanAmSat refused to disclose any information on what might have caused the satellite problem. If Galaxy 4 can't be fixed, traffic would have to be redirected to other satellites, said Russ Colby, a vice president at Digicom Services, a Los Angeles-based pager company that has 40,000 subscribers. He estimated up to 20,000 of its customers were out of service. ''It's important that word gets out. People don't know it's not working,'' Colby said. Television stations use Galaxy 4 to transmit feeds of advance shows, said Marguerite Sullivan, satellite coordinator for KCAL-TV in Los Angeles. It was not immediately clear what television programming might be affected. ''Hopefully, TV stations will be able to work around it,'' she said. ''It's just satellite space is going to be very tight. It's going to be a problem for syndication. ... Thank God most stuff is done two days in advance. We're not too bad off.'' In addition to the syndicated programs, CBS radio and television, the Chinese Television Network and the CNN Airport Channel send feeds through Galaxy 4. CBS apparently switched to the Galaxy 7 satellite, Ms. Sullivan said. Galaxy 4 was launched in June 1993 aboard an Ariane rocket. Its coverage area is primarily the United States and Caribbean, according to PanAmSat's World Wide Web sites. PanAmSat is 81 percent owned by Los Angeles-based Hughes Communications Inc.

To: dougjn who wrote (3136)	5/19/1998 11:38:00 PM
From: Neal davidson	Respond to of 10852

It seems to me that if one subscribes to the view that this stock could be above 100 in the year 2000 (wasn't it valueman who predicted a price of 140 in 2002?), then the leaps are not particularly overpriced. Buy a 2001 30 call, pay around 9 bucks, and in January 2001, the leap could be worth more than $70. That was my rationale when I bought the 2000 30 calls a couple of months ago. The risk, of course, is that Newt, Bob Barr and their cronies will keep Loral in a negative light for the next several months. Look at the bright side: When Bernie and Loral are eventually cleared of all charges, Loral will have spectacular name recognition. p.s. There is news tonight of a satellite (i think a PanAmSat) falling out of orbit and affecting many pagers around the country, not to mention some TV communications. I hope this doesn't make anyone nervous about other satellites. (I just read valueman's post on this topic...maybe Loral can benefit from this event.)