NEW YORK-Motorola Credit Corp. has sold $500 million of euro-denominated bonds paying 6.75 percent interest in order to raise capital for lending money to purchasers of wireless equipment from its parent, Motorola Inc.In its first assessment of Motorola Credit's long-term bonds, Moody's Investors Service...
United KingdomBritish Telecommunications plc said it will buy Control Data Systems Inc., a software company based in Arden Hills, Minn., for $340 million. The purchase will expand British Telecom's service offering. Control Data makes software that links programs from various suppliers, letting companies file...
When it became the first satellite-based global voice operator to launch commercial service last year, Iridium L.L.C. predicted its success would serve as the example other such carriers would need to follow.Not yet a year later, the company's dangerously low subscriber additions have resulted...
What should have been a blow to the U.S. mobile satellite services industry is turning more into a tap on the shoulder as MSS companies conduct business as usual despite Congress' recent findings that Loral Corp. and Hughes Electronics Corp. helped political and economic...
It stands to reason that if you know how to make mobile phones work, you can shut them down-say, like at gas stations or in airplanes, theaters and hospitals. That's what a few ingenious Motorola Inc. inventors across the Atlantic have in mind with...
Iridium L.L.C. announced the deadline for meeting certain customer and revenue thresholds, under the financial covenants of its $800 million senior secured credit facility, has been extended to Aug. 11.This marks the third extension of the deadline, originally set for March 31, first postponed...
DENVER, United States-After several months of fruitlessly chasing the horizontal market of international roaming business users, Iridium announced a refocused marketing plan aimed at the vertical industrial segments and a new pricing plan featuring flat-rate airtime costs and cheaper handsets.Iridium's new chief executive officer,...
WASHINGTON-Iridium L.L.C. is expected to unveil a new marketing plan and pricing structure this week, following news that it has laid off 15 percent of its work force.According to the company, the layoffs were enacted throughout all departments, not confined to marketing as originally...
WASHINGTON-U.S. Digital Communications Inc. announced it has begun curtailing the operations of its International Satellite Group Inc. subsidiary, citing difficulties in selling Iridium L.L.C. goods and services."Due to the well-documented shortcomings of the Iridium satellite telephone platform, and the corresponding inability of the International...
WASHINGTON-The Pentagon, already at war in the Middle East and the Balkans, now faces a major confrontation at home over several bills that would benefit the Department of Defense at the expense of the wireless industry.DOD is the common denominator in all the legislation...
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.-Seven Seas Communications, a service provider for Iridium North America, announced it will lower its airtime rates for Iridium service, effective immediately.The new pricing plan offers access fees as low as $19 a month and airtime from $1.59 to $4.29 per minute,...
WASHINGTON-U.S.-Sino trade relations, which only a month-and-a-half ago hit an all-time high with dramatic telecom market-opening concessions by China, have fallen into disarray.President Clinton, already on the defensive because of NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, is getting pulled in all...
Iridium World Communications Ltd.'s stock plunged last week after an announcement that parent company Iridium L.L.C. had hired Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette to restructure its debt and the company announced it would not meet the subscriber and revenue figures needed to comply with its...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Iridium L.L.C. announced it has filled two recently vacated management positions by electing senior vice president Leo Mondale its new chief financial officer and naming Sue Kennedy vice president of marketing and sales.Mondale replaces former CFO Roy Grant, who left the company last...
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.-Motorola Inc.'s Worldwide Information Network Services group announced the U.S. General Services Administration awarded it a contract for Iridium L.L.C. products and services.The contract is in addition to that with the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency, part of the Department of Defense. The...
HarrisHarris Corp. named its current Communications Sector President, E. Van Cullens, president and chief operating officer of the company, effective July 1. He will be responsible for overseeing the business operations for Harris' six divisions. Cullens joined Harris as communications sector president in 1997,...
HOUSTON-Seven Seas Communications announced it will unveil a new line of satellite communications products at the Offshore Technology Conference this week, which will include products from Iridium L.L.C., Inmarsat and American Mobile Satellite Corp.'s Oceancell venture.Devices include Iridium handsets made by Motorola Inc. and...
Iridium L.L.C.'s first full quarter of operation was marked with handset production delays, distribution problems, low subscriber numbers and a deepening net loss, the aftermath of which has led the company to re-evaluate its strategic focus and upper management team.Since launching in November, Iridium...
Press reporters on both sides of the Kosovo conflict have been castigated for not toeing the party line. In times of conflict, reporting the facts can be an unwelcome stance. During times of war, the press corps is fed an unremitting diet of half-truths...
Capping a string of negative developments leading up to its first-quarter earnings report that showed a net loss of US$505 million, Iridium announced Edward Staiano-the company's vice chairman, chief executive officer and most voracious supporter and motivator-resigned. Reports are that Staiano and Iridium's board...
WASHINGTON-Congress last week continued taking steps to strengthen a weak and noncompetitive U.S. commercial space launch industry that has forced mobile satellite firms to contract overseas, a trend contributing to the export of American jobs and to alleged technology transfers to China and Russia.On...
In recent weeks, U.S. and European telecommunications companies have been pooling their resources to provide wireless phones, airtime and money to the refugees, relief workers and media involved in the ethnic crisis in Kosovo.Several weeks ago, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata...
Capping a string of negative developments leading up to its first-quarter earnings report this week, Iridium L.L.C. announced Edward Staiano-the company's vice chairman, chief executive officer and most voracious supporter and motivator-resigned last week.Reports are that Staiano and Iridium's board of directors had disagreements...
Analysts last week hoped Motorola Inc. would shed some light in its earnings conference call on whether it will need to raise more money or take additional charges to cover its Iridium L.L.C. debt exposure, but the company avoided any specific questions on the...
