Tech Trader Daily, a blog under the Barron's umbrella, recently posted a story about Iridium, a satellite telephone company that hyped itself in the midst of the irrational exuberance of the 1990s as on a mission to change the world.
It didn't change the world. Indeed, its dreams collapsed ahead of the rest of the high-tech bubble of that time -- it petitioned for the protection of the bankruptcy court (Delaware) in 1999.
To summarize the TTD story: Iridium is a comeback success. It remained in bankruptcy for two years, until it emerged as the property of a private group of buyers led by Dan Colussy, who paid about $25 million for it to read TTD click here.
Colussy's group has since repositioned it. It no longer wants to change anything fundamental about the way people communicate, but it has found a few profitable niche markets -- as a back-up service for truck fleets, for example.
Anyway, Iridium plans an initial public offering for some time in 2009. Projects wuld be a better word there than "plans," since the projection seems vague. Still, here are two cheers for them. Hooray! Hooray! They formerly offered evidence that even when space launches are under discussion, grandiosity is a hindrance to profitability. Now they offer evidence, instead, that scaled-down practicality is the solution.
Let's hope we get more of such a less.
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