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

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (5357)	2/16/1999 12:33:00 PM
From: Rocket Scientist	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10852

Any idea what the following quote from the earnings release means? "The three months and year ended 12/31/98 include the write-off of non-strategic investments of 29.5M$"

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (5357)	2/16/1999 1:11:00 PM
From: Jeff Vayda	Respond to of 10852

Vman; from the current press release: Loral Skynet's Telstar 6 satellite was successfully launched yesterday, February 15, aboard a Proton rocket. Telstar 7 and Orion 3 are scheduled for launch by the end of the second quarter. The projected utilization rates on the in-service dates for Telstars 6 and 7 are approximately 46 percent each and for Orion 3, 35 percent. Orion 2 is scheduled to be launched at the end of the third quarter of 1999, extending Loral's FSS fleet to 10 satellites by the end of this year. Again seems like a very healthy increase in business over the year. Hope it comes about. And as you noted earlier, Cybertar looks like it is going to fade into nothingness as far as a stand alone. I agree with that move, combine all your assets, that keeps the marketing guys in the know about all the various companies capabilities, not just the one they are involved in. In order to align all of Loral's resources and activities in the data services area, CyberStar's broadband business and Loral Orion's Internet and VSAT (very small aperture terminal) businesses have been organized under group vice president Neal Bauer, Loral Orion president. This alignment allows the business units to continue to operate independently while taking advantage of the synergies they share. The reported results for the data services segment include Loral Orion operations related to the provision of data services, exclusive of transponder leasing, along with the results of CyberStar, the broadband data services company formed by Loral. Revenues for the data services segment in 1998 were approximately $40 million, primarily from the corporate data networking and Internet services businesses in which Loral Orion is engaged. EBITDA before development costs was a loss of $13 million. Total development and start-up costs for CyberStar and the segment were $33 million. In the fourth quarter, CyberStar announced the commercial availability of its broadband satellite-based business communications service. One of its first customers, National Cinema Networks, selected CyberStar to deliver in-theater media to its nationwide cinema network. CyberStar is conducting pilot programs with other enterprise customers in markets such as entertainment, finance, real estate, training, insurance and retail. From my biased read of the report things look great. Everything is on the upswing. Margins are improving, business backlogs are growing and more assets are coming on line this year. Things look good to me. Hang on. Jeff Vayda