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To: Jim Parkinson who wrote (3621)	3/28/1999 3:59:00 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 29987

Message 8559791 A good post from Valueman on Loral thread. A couple of points from it: 2) The Iridium cloud. This is a big problem. As someone just mentioned, there are doubters on the viability of MSS, as there were for cellular when it started, or CDMA when QCOM introduced it. Having doubters is not a problem, but it forces one to reassess the market for MSS services. Is there a market? Many studies say yes. Well, it is time to do our own research. If there is a market, the service providers will know. If they believe there is a substantial demand, they will be ramping up accordingly. They will treat G* as a cellualr extension, not a niche service. It will become just an extension of every service plan. How do we find this out? There are gateways available at startup for the following countries--US, China, France, Italy, Korea, Argentina. Those areas are served by Airtouch(US), France Telecom/Alcatel, also known as TESAM(France, Argentina), Alenia/ElsagBailey(Italy), Hyundai(S.Korea), and China. I won't do anything about China at this time. I can call Airtouch Monday morning--they should also be familiar with Vodafone's plans in South Africa, which fires up early on too. I can call France Telecom/Alcatel and Alenia if I can track down the correct person. I'll leave Hyundai out at this time too. So, we can find out exactly what these service providers are thinking when it comes to marketing, target users, the mechanics of using the service, etc. Will Airtouch ask QCOM to put both 800 Mhz and 1900Mhz terrestrial cell chips in the phones(that gets you the ability to use that phone in many more places than the currently planned 800Mhz only--throws in Sprint and Primeco subs)? Will the other operators in the US be able to offer G* service, and if so, how? If not, why not? Plenty of other questions, but you get my drift. 6) Cash/Acquisitions/G--With G financing looming over Loral like a high yielding axe, the acquisition machine known as Bernard Schwartz has been shackled. That concerns me. I hate to see $$$ wasting away in money markets. The juicy deals that might have been made with Asia and Latin America in shambles get further away as those areas improve. On the other hand, that China devaluation talk is getting louder each day, so we may get our chance yet. Anyway, we have seen that acquisitions are key to Loral's growth. Skynet, SatMex, and Orion are now the cash flow generators in the lineup after a rocky start. I bet the next acquisitions are much smoother. They are out there, but we need some clarification on G* financing before Schwartz can "do the deal." Time is of the essence here. I don't care if you dilute me, get the financing squared away and get on with the plan. One from RocketScientist: Message 8561867 And RMiethe: Message 8565564 Vman disagreed on the backup to Zenit: I would strongly disagree here. The Zenit went down in September. A contingency plan would have had a launch on Soyuz or Delta ready to go within the month. Those rockets were not scheduled, nor were they ready. Nothing was ready. The TSA problem allowed Loral to save face. It gave them the time to draw up the contingency plan and execute it. The blame was put on the TSA troubles, when, in reality, it saved them. Through luck or whatever, it has worked out so far. One can go back to Schwartz's own comments and know without a doubt they were not ready for any disaster--he stated that they could get by fine if the third Zenit crashed, would have a 3 month delay if the second one crashed, and they were hosed if the first one crashed(ok, he probably didn't put it that way, but he might as well have). Maurice

To: Jim Parkinson who wrote (3621)	3/30/1999 10:31:00 AM
From: Geoff Goodfellow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

Reuters-Iridium has waiver on credit pact, CFO quits By Jessica Hall NEW YORK, March 29 (Reuters) - Global satellite telecommunications company Iridium LLC (Nasdaq:IRID - news) said on Monday its chief financial officer resigned and it received a two-month extension from its lenders to prove it can meet certain revenue and subscriber targets. Shares of Iridium closed at $19.94, down $1.69 or 8 percent. Iridium's stock has fallen 73 percent since its 52-week high last May. Iridium said earlier this month its first-quarter financial results and subscriber levels would fall short of expectations due to slow production and distribution of phones by suppliers, quality problems with certain phone handsets, and poor marketing efforts by its regional affiliates. The latest announcement that Iridium's CFO Roy Grant will leave April 16 sparked concerns that the company's problems may run deeper than just distribution woes, analysts said. ''It's a bit of instability at a time when they need to be getting more stable...it does not help investor confidence to see this,'' said one financial analyst who declined to be named. Iridium said Grant is leaving for personal reasons and it expects to name a replacement by the time of his departure. Grant could not be immediately reached for comment. Iridium also gained a two-month extension to meet its growth targets. Under the waiver, Iridium must have $4 million in cash revenues, $30 million in cumulative accrued revenues and at least 52,000 customers by May 31. Iridium will default on its loans if it fails to meet those targets. Iridium, which had 3,000 subscribers at the end of 1998, said it is revising its revenue and customer targets and it plans to request a change in the terms of the loan requirements. ''I'd expect drastic reductions in the subscriber and revenue targets,'' said SoundView Financial Group analyst Timothy O'Neil. O'Neil recently cut his first quarter subscriber forecast to 9,000 from 25,000 and the full year 1999 subscriber forecast to 115,000 from 339,000. He does not expect Iridium to show significant subscriber gains until at least the third quarter of 1999. Analysts said they expect Iridium's lenders will renegotiate the terms of the loans, but they may look for additional financial commitment from Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - news), which owns 20 percent of Iridium. Motorola spokesman David Rudd declined to comment on whether it would provide Iridium with more financial support. Rudd, however, said the company stood by comments Motorola President Bob Growney made last week in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper. Growney told the FT ''there's no chance of Iridium going under.'' Other members of the consortium behind Iridium include Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON - news), Raytheon Co. (NYSE:RTNa - news), Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT - news) and Pacific Electric Wire & Cable Co. Ltd. . Iridium, which has a network of 66 satellites that enable calls to be made virtually anywhere in the world, launched its service in November after a five-week delay. Iridium faces several challenges going forward, including renegotiating the terms of its credit agreement, improving its sales and distribution operations and simplifying its pricing plans, analysts said. ''I still see light at the end of the tunnel, it's just a longer tunnel and the light's not as bright,'' O'Neil said. Iridium also may land a contract with the U.S. government to provide phones to the Amry, Navy, Airforce and Marines, but the Defense Department still needs security features on the phone service before it can fully adopt it, analysts said.