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Technology Stocks : IRID - Iridium World Communications IPO Announced! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Marty Rubin who wrote (1868)	5/28/1999 7:28:00 PM
From: Michael	Respond to of 2693

wired.com ....Iridium's 66-satellite network is the time bomb in its financial strategy. Each satellite is designed to work for only about five years. After that, Iridium has to shoot up a whole raft of replacement satellites to keep its system running. "What they have started is a business that never goes to bed," said Ray Jodoin, a telecommunications analyst for Cahners In-Stat Group, a market researcher. "They have to constantly keep reinventing the satellite system. They never can say, 'OK, we've done it. They're finally in place.'" >>

To: Marty Rubin who wrote (1868)	5/28/1999 10:01:00 PM
From: Bill Jackson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2693

Marty, Iridium as we know it is dead, they keep animating the body with these extensions, but they will never work. No white knight or white tech will come along and rescue Ir. These low sales as well as the need to replace the birds after 5 years sound the death knell. People cling to hope as the numbers are huge. As it stands a bankruptcy auction will get few buyers for the ground stations or the satellite network as it is not viable based on current operating revenues, ignoring sunk costs. Running it as an ever diminishing network with no new birds will slowly casue it to lose coverage and revenue. The lower numbers of subscribers might extend the birds live slightly. This is an idea whose time to die has come. After sale of the ground assets and possible sale of transponder space for whatever uses as long as the birds still fly there will be nothing to service any debt and the guarantors will be on hook for the full shot. Motorola can afford it, as can the others, kill it, it can not be saved in the present form. Even turning all debt to shares will leave it with no way to keep going on current revenues unless some magic new tech comes along> Bill