To: Dragonfly who wrote (4159 ) 4/25/1999 3:09:00 PM From: Maurice Winn Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 29987
*Iridium/Globalstar/ICO/Whatsitsname competition* A good comment from Iridium repeated here:Message 9128823 But Globalstar will cut their prices when they realize too many minutes are wasted and revenue could be maximized with cheaper minutes and a bit of price elasticity doing its magic. Iridium can't price cut. Their 'in space' system is designed and built and that is all they can sell [other than some software upgrades]. You asked why I hope for Iridium to fail? Because they are competitors and my aim is always to beat competitors and get all their customers. If Iridium fails early, it will have the added advantage of ICO investors getting a fright and stopping their investment losses earlier rather than later. If there really are 40 milllion people waiting for these satellite services, at $3 per minute or whatever absurd charges are proposed, then Iridium will succeed and so will ICO. My money is on a much, much, much, tighter market than that. I can assure you I am very, very confident in my position. If I look unconfident, it surprises me and concerns me to the extent that ICO might have false hope, as Iridium did when going through their 'Sell to the rich and stupid who want status' strategy. You say I constantly bash Iridium, but if you really scrutinize my words, you will see suggestions that Globalstar might be planning a less than perfect selling programme, pricing strategy, subscriber growth rate and Constellation2 delays. Huh? Whining and moaning about Iridium when it was way up? No, I think you are confusing me with somebody else. When Iridium was way up in share price, I was still maintaining it would at best return the shareholders their money, but no surpluses to speak of. I've kicked Iridium always. When it was up, when it was down, before the IPO always. It has never made sense to me compared with Globalstar. Sure Iridium is dragging Globalstar's share price down. That's because very few people understand the differences between the two and their prospects for profit. If Globalstar drops to $5, that's fine by me - I'll buy those seller's shares so that they can go to an investment they like better. I'm not trading so am financially indifferent to the share price though of course I do like to see it zooming up to the sky in a broad affirmation of what I'm thinking. I intend to bank a bunch of profits in 5 or 10 years. When Zenit blew up, it sure was exciting! I slept with the phone by the bed in case I got a margin call. I was disappointed not to get a small one but secretly pleased that my conservative debt was justified by events. At times I thought I should increase it, but I know that exogenous [new word which quite fun] events can sneak up and catch one unawares. AZ [after Zenit] we had the 50 year financial panic, Long Term Capital Management, which had multibillions stacked up on a Globalstar stockholding called in the bailiffs, the Fed got busy. It was all very exciting and in retrospect makes the whole Globalstar investment that much more rewarding. A cakewalk is not really that much fun in life. It's the challenge, fear, cold hard reality, struggle and success which makes one feel top of the world. Mountaineering might be fun, but Globalstar type investments are where the real action is. Not for the faint-hearted, but the rewards are there for the brave and successful. Yes, I had emotional patterns through all that. I love having emotional patterns. I recommend the move "Happy Gilbert" about a hockey pro who turned golfer. You can see my emotional patterns there [especially when playing golf] though I'm not so prone to violence as him. I say keep emotions in investing! Keep the brain in charge. Anyone who says they keep emotions out of investing is not going to do well because they don't even understand themselves, let alone the stocks they are planning to invest in. Understanding and controlling themselves is the first issue in investment. Sure Iridium [or more likely Motorola when the acquire the assets] will top up the constellation if satellites fail, but with a design life of 5.5 years, they shouldn't have to replace more than a few. DF, I really don't understand what majore strategic change Iridium can make which will rescue the existing shareholder's funds. Everyone keeps talking about all the demand, but so far, I'm not seeing much. I think demand has a price. Maybe the market researchers tested verbal behaviour of people in a market reserach environment and didn't test purchasing behaviour at all. Maybe the readers of the market research were unable to correctly understand the facts before them and in their enthusiasm derived 40 million subscribers; I've seen such weak interpretation before. The main thing is that ICO should put their system on hold until the market is proven by Iridium and Globalstar. So far, it has not been. After ICO has gone on hold for a couple of years, due to lack of interest in Iridium and Globalstar, they can cancel it and lose less money. There is an expression "Good money after bad". This is applicable. Maurice