Craig McCaw’s Eagle River Investments L.L.C. announced it will not invest in Iridium L.L.C., forcing Iridium to look elsewhere for financial backing to pull it out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Eagle River said it will instead focus its satellite communications investments on bailing out ICO Global Communications, which also is in bankruptcy, and McCaw’s Teledesic L.L.C. satellite Internet venture.
“After careful examination of Iridium’s technologies, we determined that there are closer synergies between ICO and Teledesic and the services the will provide customers worldwide.”
On Feb. 17, Eagle River and Motorola Inc. together provided $5 million to fund Iridium operations through March 6, allowing time for Eagle River to complete its due diligence process on Iridium for further investments. Eagle River said it completed that process last week.
Officials at Iridium had no comment.
ICO, expected to begin commercial service in 2002, has several satellite launches scheduled.
