Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Bloom on New Book, 'Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story'(Audio)

Transcript

Bloom on New Book, 'Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story'(Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Broadcasting live to New York, Bloomberg eleventh Rio to Washington,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: d C. Bloom to Boston, Bloomberg twelve hundred to San Francisco,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Bloomberg nine to the Country's Zoie's Exam Channel one, and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: around the globe. The Bloomberg Radio Plus happened. Bloomberg got gone.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: This is taking Stock, coming up on taking Stock, you know,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: in Vice President, then Vice President of the United States,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Al Gore made the first irridium telephone call. This iridium technology,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: by placing satellites in orbit, was supposed to revolutionize the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: way telephone conversations and data were transmitted. When we've got
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: details from John bloom whose new book Eccentric Orbits, The
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Irridium Story gives us the details of the company's history.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I want more details on today's big business news, piem.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Let's go right to Charlie Pellett in the news room
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: with the Bloomberg Business Class, and I think I watch Kathleen.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pam. We've got the SMP five hundred index
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: on track for its biggest gain in a month, that
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: index moving within one point four percent of a record.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: We are brought to you by National Realty Providers of
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent satisfaction guaranteed. New York City Realty investments.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: See them at n r I A dot net SMP
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: five hundred index up nineteen now gaining nine tenths of
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: one percent to four down. Industrials up one hundred and
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: fifty eight points up nine tenths of one percent. Nestack
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: up fifty four a gain of one point one percent,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the tenure down fourteen thirty seconds with the yield of
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: one point seven three percent. Gold Laurel All Day down
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: five thirty to twelve sixty four, a drop of four
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: tenths of one percent. Well, what about the interest rate
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: environment and what happens when fed share? Janet Yellen and
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: other members of the f O m C meet next month.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Bob Michael is Global Chief Investment Officer and head of
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Global fixed Income at JP Morgan Investment Management. Certainly, when
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you look at what's priced in the market, there's a
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: one in ten chants, But she does say every meeting
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: is live, they will be data dependent. I think the
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: big date debate is will there be enough data between
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: now and and the mid July meeting for her to
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: make a change. First day out fort Toilio, it is
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: a maker of mobile and web apps, backed by Bessemer
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Venture Partners. Shares our surging six point four percent. Crude
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: oil up ninety two cents a barrel fifty four cents
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: right now on West Texas Intermediate. That is a gain
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: of one point nine percent and a three thirty two
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: on Wall Street. Now, let's take a look at other
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: news from around the world on Bloomberg Radio. Thank you,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Charlie from the Bloomberg Newsroom. I'm Jill Schneider. This news
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: update is brought to you by the Jeep Grand Cherokee,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the most awarded suv ever. The Grand Cherokee continues to
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: raise the bar with its luxurious interior and legendary four
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: by four capability. Drive one at your local Jeep dealer today.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: UK citizens are voting today in a referendum on the
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: country's membership in the European Union. UK law prevents us
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: from reporting on voting or discussion and analysis of referendum issues.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Wall polls are open, but we will be following all
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the results as they come in. Special coverage begins at
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: five pm Wall Street time. Right here on Bloomberg Radio.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: A deadlock Supreme Court vote has effectively killed President Obama's
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: plan to shield millions more immigrants who are in the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: US illegally from being deported. The President called the decision heartbreaking.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: It means that the expanded set of common sense deferred
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: action policies, the ones that I announced two years ago.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I can't go forward at this stage until there is
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: a ninth justice on the court to break the tie.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: This afternoon, after more than twenty four hours, House Democrats
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: ended their sit in on the House floor. Georgia Democratic
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Congressman John Lewis lend the charge for a vote on
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: gun control legislation. I must never a giveon. We must
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: keep the faith, and we must come back here on
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: July Mota tremor can ever before. How Speaker Paul Ryan
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: called the sit in a publicity stunt that risks setting
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a dangerous precedent for American democracy. Gooble News twenty four
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: hours a day, powered by more than journalists and analysts
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: in more than one d twenty countries. From the Bloomberg
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: News Room. I'm Jill Schneider. This is Bloomberg, Charlie, and
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: we thank you, and again recapping equities hire today with
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the SP five hundred index now at twenty one oh
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: six up by one. I'm Charlie Pellett and that's a
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Flash. You're listening to taking stunt with Kathleen
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and Pin Fox on Bloomberg Radio. Irridium. The Irridium satellite
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: system was designed to revolutionize communications around the world. It
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: also revolutionized the determ termination of many people to bring
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: this company into the reality of operation. John Bloom is
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: an author and investigative journalist and he is the author
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: of a new book entitled Eccentric Orbits The Iridium Story.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: It looks at the development, launch, and bankruptcy of Motorola's
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: revolutionary satellite system. John Bloom, thank you very much for
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: being with us. Thank you for having me. How did
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: you first become interested in the Iridium story. Well, I
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: met a man named Dan Calusi who was retired in
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Florida playing golf, and uh had had had been the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: man who saved the system, but when he told me
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: about it, I've never heard of it. It was the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: most expensive and complicated engineering project ever done. It was
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: more complicated than Los alamos Um. It was these autonomous
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: action satellites that functioned like cell towers in the I
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: and it was supposedly was going to make every inch
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: of the planet accessible by phone. So they built it.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: It worked, It was acclaimed by engineers all over the world.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: And so I met this guy years years later, and
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I've never heard of it, And so that's how I
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: got interested in the in the story. Um, but you know,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: they plowed through eleven billion dollars in nine months, and
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: so it became so the most extensive engineering project in
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: history became the biggest bankruptcy in the history. Um. It
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: was one year before Enron, so that record didn't last
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: very long. But uh, it was that. That's what that
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: was the original h impetus for the book. There was
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: something about technology then and technology now. I think that
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: when things go so quickly, you kind of lose track
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: of even you know, we're short spending time how different
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: things were and how far we've come. Well, the system
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: was built by Motorola Corporation, which, in when the system
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: was first conceived, Motorola controlled the whole world in terms
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: of cell phones. They had invented the first cell phone. Uh,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: they were the leaders, they controlled of the market. Uh,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and they thought this was the next step, because why
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: is the world building cell towers? One to five miles
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: apart throughout the entire planet, or trying to You can't
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: really do it when you could just put cell towers
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: in the sky. And so they thought this was the
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: obvious next generation of UM cell phones. And it worked.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: But by the time it was finished UM they were
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: going to market it to this elusive creature called the
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: international business traveler. And the international business traveler needed to
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: be accessible all over the world. And so by the
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: time they finished it, UM the International Business Traveler had
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: a g s M roaming phone that was small, compact,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: portable and really worked where all the people are in
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: the world. He didn't he didn't need a phone that that,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: you know, UH went to Antarctica. So UM. So, even
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: though it was the revolutionary system, it was too expensive
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: and and they went to bankrupt pretty quick. But what
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: what frightened the government is that Motorola just decided to
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: abandon the project and crashed the satellites into the ocean. UM.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: That's why people remember it. Those those who remember it
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: at all remember it as the biggest flame out in history.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: And you know, the Motorola's biggest mistake of the of
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the nineties. But because of the intervention of this one
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: guy in Florida and Dan Calusi, who was retired but
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: at one time he had run PanAm Airlines and UNC Corporation,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: and he just said, this is this is a crime.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: We can't let these things be destroyed. And so he
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: um got involved with the Pentagon, the White House, the
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Secretary of Defense put together an investment group. What was
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: strange is that any fortune company could have saved the
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: system with just a few pennies, but they all passed
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: on it. And so he put together this Motley investment
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: group that included Saudi Arabians and the friends of Jesse
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Jackson venture capital firm in uh in Washington, d C.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: And they, through enormous efforts and a little luck, they
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: saved the system. Is still flies today and it's still
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: the only one of its kind and likely to be
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the only one of its kind into the foreseeable future.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Um In in fact, it's going to be used for
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: the next generation of air traffic control, so we don't
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: have any airliners go off the grid anymore and lose
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: them in the ocean. Um So, uh So there's two stories.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: How Motorola lost the company and how this little group
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Motley crewe Um saved the company and then this phone
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: became essential in Iraq and Afghanistan for our for our troops. Well,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: we thank you so very much for joining us today.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: A fascinating story written by investigative journalist John bloom and
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: it's brand new Eccentric Orbits, the development launching bankruptcy, and
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Motorola's revolutionary satellite system a Ridium. We thank you for
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: joining us today. I'm Kafeine Hayes along with Pim Fox.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: This is taking Stock on Bloomberg Radio. Coming up on
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: taking Stock, We're going to take stock of a new exchange.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: The ie X Group has got a new exchange and
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: we're going to tell you all about this full fledged
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: stock exchange