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Iridium Holdings LLC, which you may know as a Sat Phone company, is being bought by private equity firm Greenhill & Co. for $591 million. Iridium has said that the deal allows it to be debt-free, and also puts it in a good position to replace it’s 66 satellites.
Iridium was around in a different guise 10 years ago and launched a Sat phone service – the idea being you could call from literally anywhere. However, it didn’t get the subs that it was supposed to (it has 300K now) and Iridium LLC went bankrupt in 1999 with around 55K subs, and debts of $4.4 billion.
Next, a company called Iridium Satellite LLC bought the assets for $25 million, which a fraction of the $5 billion it cost Motorola and others to develop it. This launched in 2001, and gives the aforementoned 300K subscribers their service.
[Via: Cellular News]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
