Wounded birds
The satellite industry’s future once stood on three promising legs: mobile voice, broadband Internet and digital television. Soon only one of these may be left
WHAT could Rupert Murdoch be thinking? Or, for that matter, Microsoft? Satellites, as everybody knows, are a financial black hole that has claimed Iridium, ICO and Globalstar, along with tens of billions of dollars of investors' money, over the past two years. Yet Mr Murdoch and Microsoft are teaming up to make a multibillion-dollar bid for a controlling stake in Hughes's DirecTV, a digital satellite broadcaster. Is it possible that the skies are again safe for big metal birds?
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Wounded birds”
From the May 12th 2001 edition
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