No- not broke- just down 47%, hopefully they continue that trajectory, and pull javad into the hole with them-
AMF and good riddence-
"Falcone’s LightSquared Considers Bankruptcy
By Renee OFarrell
Philip Falcone
Phil Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners owns the lion’s share of LightSquared, the wireless venture that has been struggling to receive federal approval to implement a mobile technology that uses global positioning systems to provide voice and data services. His fund has invested over $3 billion in the company so far (roughly 60% of its money) and seen next to nothing in returns. Now that the value of LightSquared has been revalued to just a little over half a billion dollars, Falcone’s Harbinger is losing even more. It is down 47% thanks largely to its investment in the wireless company."
When you guys say the other GPS manufactures were doing the same thing Javad did, are you saying they were working on a solution in case the waiver passed, or secretly lobbying on behalf Lightsquared? Because all the outward appearances is that the other GPS manufactures were not supporting Lightsquared. Trimble was a founding member of the Coalition to Save our GPS.
Javad, like a lot of Engineers I have known, is really smart but sometimes the practical part is lacking. I used some of his stuff in the 90s; it was ground breaking and worked where most others wouldn't but some of the execution was amateurish like cables that looked homemade (electrical tape, etc).
I wouldn't buy anything directly from Javad and I thought that before all of this latest PR disaster by him. He obviously is not politically attuned at all.
I got a job that had Trimble GPS around 2000 and at the time I thought it wouldn't work as well because of no Glonass but soon I became a fan because everything was actually manufactured to a level expected for the acquisition cost. The cables where actually decent quality and somewhat ruggedized for actual real field work which can be rough on equipment. Topcon did take Javads stuff and produced the Hipers which were a huge improvement over his older stuff (the Legacy receivers, I think).
> Topcon did take Javads stuff and produced the Hipers
Historically, Topcon hasn't done a lot to alter the hardware of its GPS suppliers. The SX-1 and DX-1 were exceptions; I believe Topcon built the housings for the Trimble innards. (A colleague has a DX-1 system, and one of the original antennas came with Trimble decals on the ground plane.) I think Topcon's versions of the AOA Rascal, the Ashtech Z-12, the Javad Hiper and now the Sokkia GRX-1 are stock except for the paint color.