To: Maurice Winn who wrote (4757 ) 5/20/1999 8:03:00 AM From: Jeff Vayda Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 29987
Loral/Globalstar Shareholder Meeting Notes (copied to Loral thread) ((Post 4737 gives an good accounting of the questions/answers)) Everyone got a Loral/Globalstar hat - big deal, I wanted a shirt! Oh well, the Soyuz shirt I wore, sure stood out in the crowd (or maybe it was the jeans?) (Thanks for the Soyuz shirt) Random Notes: All management proposals passed (no surprise there) The request for an Additional 20 million preferred at Loral had 40 of the 200 million opposed. (I guess we will have to wait to find out who the gift is for.) Bernie had some introductory comments. He stressed the 'convergence' position Loral was seeking in the market of integrated multimedia companies. He pushed the 'complementary' nature of Globalstar to the existing telephone infrastructure. Several times in the remarks, he commented that G* has done the research and learned from Iridium, that they have a large commitment to market research. He pointedly commented on the current launch infrastructure and that the government has lagged behind in its Range modernization commitments. Globalstar: All sats 'exceeding' expectations. Call quality 'exceeds' industry standards. 30K phones at start, 120K at year end, 300K 'open' production order. Expect ramp up to 40K phones/month by year end (Greater on second order) but no word on how fast the ramp up could be, or when the second order could be placed. He stated a couple times that he has personally gone to the manufacturers and pushed for increased activity ramp up, volume and advertising). For an example Bernie commented that Ericson told him they dont do anything until 90 days before service start. Nine ground stations up and supporting. By March 2000, 70% of the market will be covered. Net profitability in 2000. Business plan: 40% capacity in 2002 is conservative. Plan to max out the system in 2003/4. Bernie worked at changing the metric from 'subscribers' to 'minutes sold' Service Providers might not release the number of subscribers to G* , but G* will be able to tell the minutes used and will report those. I asked about second generation, they will take a look at the situation in 2002. (So what are those extra satellites they are buying for?) No word on the type or timing of the financing. Globalstar phone call from San Diego (Qualcomm). Missed the guys name (Gerry ?) Quality was fine, dont know how much the PA system in the hall effected things. Time delay was much less than a second. Phone is huge. Impressions: G* Service Providers are savy phone marketing concerns. I think they are not pushing the first phone order cause they know the second generation phones will be quite an improvement. The current phone is too big. To sell, Globalstar must be "featured", not an option. By that I mean people will buy because it is a Globalstar phone not because it has an option like 26 different ring tones. I hope that the next generation phones will have Globalstar as a option. The phone is too big to be your everyday phone unless you need the Globalstar feature. Loral: Orion III loss will keep the loss next year at approx $1.10 /share. Nothing new there. He did say that G* and Cyberstar results will be 'huge' at the end of fiscal 2000 and 'all' businesses will be profitable. Cyberstar has become a - get the customers on current assets, then if demand requires, we will build some dedicated birds. Made the comment it would take 15 million to reconfigure China Sat 8 to another customer. That seems to be a pretty specific number to mention at a shareholders meeting - one which I dont think you come to or even bother with unless you have identified another customer. Might they be thinking to configure China Sat 8 to use in an Loral Alliance company? Overall it was nice to get the chance to put some faces on some contacts. Meet some nice folks and got the chance to chat.
Thanks to Mike Smith (and his fiancee) for helping out this Southern Boy on his first trip to the Big Apple. The trip was much more enjoyable due to their efforts. Jeff Vayda