March 17, 2000: Iridium LLC, the troubled international satellite phone service, announced plans to hang up, telling a New York bankruptcy court that it could not find a qualified buyer and would cease operations.
Hopes that Washington-based Iridium could be saved were dealt a blow two weeks earlier, when wireless entrepreneur Craig McCaw, now chairman of Clearwire Corp., withdrew from talks to salvage it. McCaw's Eagle River Investments LLC in February provided $5 million in financing, keeping Iridium in operation until March 6. Earlier, Eagle River had pledged to give the concern $74.6 million.
However, if you are wondering why an Iridium satellite recently collided with a Russian spy satellite, it's because the service did not permanently shut down as expected. Instead, it was restarted in 2001 after an investment group formed Iridium Satellite LLC to purchase the liquidating company's satellites at a bankruptcy auction for $25 million -- Iridium LLC reportedly had paid an estimated $6 billion to build and launch its network.
Recently, Iridium 33, one of Iridium Satellite's 66 operating satellites, unexpectedly collided with a Russian spy satellite, creating a great deal of media attention. - Matthew Wurtzel
Pipeline subscribers see Iridium Satellite LLC's profile page for the complete history
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Ca 2001 the news was that the DoD owned a ground hub and gained control of Iridium and gave it to Boeing to operate... Iridium Satellite LLC was a burp in the process....
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