LEARNING FROM CORPORATE MISTAKES: THE RISE AND FALL OF IRIDIUM Sydney Finkelstein Shade H. Sanford EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In mid-1998‚ Iridium was one of the darlings of Wall Street having more than tripled in stock price in less than a year. Armed with expertise and over 1‚000 patents‚ the company seemed poised to capture first-mover advantage in providing global telephony via a network of low-Earth-orbiting satellites. Additionally‚ Iridium appeared to have identified an attractive target segment
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Competitive Attribute Program ¡V Iridium Mobile Satellite System Project The ability to capture values along the Technology Adoption Lifecycle determines not just how successful a firm will be‚ but whether it will create competitive advantage through technology. Businesses with large fixed costs‚ capital-intensive business plans‚ and specialized asset bases will face the challenge to maintain its strategic continuity because it is generally prohibitively expensive to change direction to response
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OPIM 5894 Advanced Project management Iridium LLC Team 3 • Richard Buskey • Jonathan Weiss • Daniel Mahzonni • Prashant Mishra • Vijay Gadigeppa • Jonathan Koenig Iridium LLC • What caused iridium to fail: was it a bad strategy‚ bad execution or bad luck? – Bad Strategy • Marketing and Sales mistakes • Overpriced phones: $ 3‚000 • Prices: $3.00 - $7.50 per call • Mixed predictions regarding the mobile satellite market – Leslie Taylor Associates predicted a user base of 7
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Critique the financing choices of Iridium up to January 1999. Pay special attention to the theoretical motivation for the use of either debt or equity. 2. Value Iridium’s shares as of January 1999 and as of May 1999. 3. Propose a reorganization plan for Iridium based on your value estimates and the outstanding claims as of July 1999 4. Based on your value estimates and the reorganization plan‚ estimate the magnitude of the costs of financial distress for Iridium as a fraction of firm value
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Fall of Iridium Questions 1. Who was to blame for Iridium ’s failure? Why? At what point could you have known Iridium would fail? 2. What is your evaluation of Iridium ’s system design? What impact did the choices that were made have on subsequent evolution of the venture? 3. What is your evaluation of Iridium ’s organizational design? What changes could you have made to increase the probability of Iridium ’s success? Q1. In the case of Iridium several parties are to blame for the failure. They
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Iridium Case Study Iridium is a famous case in which Motorola and other well known companies invested about $5 billion in a satellite venture that would enable a person to use his cell phone around the world. The investment included more than $2.2 billion in debt. Soon after operations began‚ the company declared bankruptcy and its assets were ultimately sold for only $25 million‚ leaving the lenders with a total loss. It is obvious that projections made by the company and endorsed by the most
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ACARS via Iridium Iridium is a large satellite constellation that consists of 66 low-earth orbiting (LEO)‚ cross-linked satellites operating as a fully meshed network providing truly global coverage (including oceans‚ airways and polar regions). Iridium satellites are in a near-polar orbit at an altitude of 485 miles. The network is composed of 66 active satellites that fly in six orbital planes‚ each with 11 satellites per plane. Satellites circle the earth once every 100 minutes. ACARS is
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REVIVING IRIDIUM “The brilliance of the technology cannot take precedence over the market case. At the end of the day‚ if you’re spending $5 billion on the technology‚ there better be a market for it. And if there isn’t‚ there will be great humiliation.” - Herschel Shosteck‚ a Wheaton-based wireless analyst‚ in March 2000. “Iridium failed to match its system to its mission which caused too much pressure on the company to get customers quickly.”
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know the difference. Use Risk Premium of 7.5%. Compare with market value and analysts estimate. Kindly refer excel sheet 2) Why did Iridium fail – Strategic reasons The strategic reasons for the failure of Iridium are the following: All the above strategic reasons contributed significantly towards the failure of Iridium. 3) Why did Iridium Fail – Financial Reasons. Each group should note the advantages and disadvantages of Bank Debt and Senior notes. Advantages of Bank debt Bank loans
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Iridium and the Market for Satellite Phones Introduction: In August 1988 Motorola CEO Bob Galvin approved initial funding for a global satellite telephone system developed by Motorola’s Space and Technology Group. Two years later‚ in June 1990‚ Motorola formally announced the Iridium project in simultaneous press conferences in New York‚ London‚ Melbourne‚ and Beijing. Motorola was the lead investor in a separate corporate entity that managed the entire Iridium project. It took $5 billion in
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