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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Ramsey Su who wrote (30036)5/14/1999 10:16:00 AM
From: Jean M. Gauthier  Respond to of 152472
 
Very Good question !

Anybody know of a good answer..... ?

On another side note, another MOTOROLA mess !! the gang that cannot shoot straight !

Jean



To: Ramsey Su who wrote (30036)5/14/1999 10:18:00 AM
From: Caxton Rhodes  Read Replies (4) | Respond to of 152472
 
Ramsey- They'll show up on Priceline.com. Bidding starts at $5 per bird. A lot of people have nice cars, houses, etc., but how many can say, "I own a satellite?"

Caxton



To: Ramsey Su who wrote (30036)5/14/1999 10:25:00 AM
From: marginmike  Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 152472
 
No somebody will buy them out of bankruptcy(MOT) and start from scratch. This would be a negative for GSTRF, because the whole cost structure of Iridium will be much lower. However the shares of IRID will be worthless because Iridium will be bankrupt in 6 months(if not sooner). I am a schmuck because since 27 a share I have considered buying putts. I am not a short, or putt buyer so I was reluctent.



To: Ramsey Su who wrote (30036)5/14/1999 10:26:00 AM
From: Jon Koplik  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 152472
 
Re : what happens to the LEOS floating around?

Remember Wile E. Coyote holding up his teeny, tiny umbrella when a boulder was about to fall on his head ?

Go get an umbrella !

Jon.



To: Ramsey Su who wrote (30036)5/14/1999 12:56:00 PM
From: Clarksterh  Respond to of 152472
 
Ramsey - If Iridium eventually folds, what happens to the 60(?) some LEOS floating around?

Perhaps you jest, but unless it costs more to operate than they can make in revenues they should continue to be used for their originally designed purpose. For a while anyway. But MOT only works with full coverage. 33 IRID satellites is pretty worthless since they need a complete constellation for their cross links. So what happens when they need to replace a satellite? That is the $64K question.

Of course if it turns out that it does indeed cost more to operate them then the revenues they can get then the satellites are so much space junk - but I'd be surprised if that were the case although MOT's O&M contract is pretty expensive.

Clark



To: Ramsey Su who wrote (30036)5/16/1999 11:21:00 AM
From: CDMQ  Respond to of 152472
 
Staff Writer

May 16, 1999

Desikan revered Irwin Jacobs, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology who co-authored "Digital Communications," the seminal technical textbook
on the subject.

Although never a student of the man who would later co-found Qualcomm, Desikan
nonetheless considered Jacobs a mentor.

Desikan struggled, however, with the book' s section on spread spectrum technology --
the foundation of code division multiple access, or CDMA -- and switched disciplines
from digital communications to focus on telephone communications.

How ironic, then, that after being laid off from two of three previous jobs this decade,
Desikan in 1993 landed a position at Qualcomm -- where he had two weeks to learn
CDMA.

Desikan became so proficient that he emerged as the company' s designated hitter on
CDMA, and he became a worldwide evangelist for the technology.

He would leave his wife and two children at their home in Poway for weeks at a time.
"My family accepted the fact I had to travel," he says, his Indian accent elegantly
trilling the "R" consonant.

Desikan, along with former Qualcomm executive Allen Salmasi, who left to head the
ill-fated NextWave Telecom, facilitated the first CDMA technology transfer to South
Korea, which remains the largest CDMA market outside the United States.

Unfortunately, his tireless crusading throughout Asia, Central Europe and parts of
Africa was for Qualcomm' s ill-fated infrastructure division.

He was in Egypt in January when friends at fortress Qualcomm passed on rumors via
e-mail that layoffs were brewing. Desikan, 50, was unfazed.

"I took the position that today I have a job to do and will do it," he says. "I felt being a
long-time employee, Qualcomm would retain me."

He returned to San Diego on Jan. 31. Two days later, he was seated in a conference
room with his boss and a human resources representative, who delivered grim news. "I
could see in their faces that they were uncomfortable," Desikan says.

At a restaurant recently, Desikan was impeccably dressed in dark blue suit, red tie and
board-stiff white shirt -- the same type of attire he wore while at Qualcomm.

He has been out of work since February, but habits die hard: "There was an unwritten
code in the business department -- you always dressed properly."

His wife, who joined Qualcomm in 1996, is with the division that makes the computer
brain chips for mobile phones. The division is one of the company' s top performers, so
she' s secure for the moment.

A generous severance package and the fact that his wife retained her job cushioned
Desikan' s fall.

"I look at this as an opportunity for me," he says. "I know CDMA. Now I can go on to
learning something different."

Copyright 1999 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.