Book : Eccentric Orbits The Iridium Story - Bloom, John

-Titulo Original : Eccentric Orbits The Iridium Story

-Fabricante :

Grove Press

-Descripcion Original:

In the early 1990s, Motorola, the legendary American radio and telecom company, made a huge gamble on a revolutionary satellite telephone system called Iridium. Light-years ahead of anything previously put into space, built on technology for Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars,” Iridium was a mind-boggling technical accomplishment that sent waves of panic through phone companies around the world, because, surely, Iridium was the future of communication. Only months after launching service, bankruptcy was inevitable-the largest to that point in American history. It looked like Iridium would go down as just a “science experiment.”That is, until Dan Colussy got a wild idea. Colussy, a retired former President of Pan Am, heard about Motorola’s plans to “de-orbit” the system and decided he would try to buy Iridium. Somehow, the little guy figured he could turn around one of the biggest blunders in the history of business.Eccentric Orbits masterfully traces the development of satellite technology, the birth of Iridium, and Colussy’s tireless efforts to stop it from being destroyed, despite having doors slammed in his face by all of Wall Street. Piecing together funding from a motley group of investors that included a mysterious Arab prince and friends of Jesse Jackson, he eventually made his case before the most powerful people at the Clinton White House, the Pentagon, the FCC, intelligence services, and a consortium of thirty banks, pleading for the only phone that works at the ends of earth. Eccentric Orbits is a rollicking, unforgettable tale of innovation, failure, the military-industrial complex, and one of the greatest deals of all time. Review Praise for Eccentric Orbits: Named one of the “Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2016” and one of the “20 Books That Defined Our Year” by the Wall Street Journal Named a Book of the Year 2016 by the Economist An Amazon Best Book of the Month A Hudson Booksellers’ Best Book of 2016 (Best Business Interest) “Engaging and ambitious . . . Eccentric Orbits is maximalist nonfiction, 500 pages of deep reporting put forward with epic intentions . . . a panoramic narrative, laced with fine filigree details, that makes for a story that soars and jumps and dives and digresses . . . [A] big, gutsy, exciting book.” Wall Street Journal “Those with visions of vast satellite communications networks dancing in their heads would do well to read John Bloom’s new book on [Iridium] . . . Bloom . . . tells this story well . . . He does a good job of explaining the technology and the importance of the inventors who made the technology possible.” Washington Post “Think of Final Cut, Steven Bach’s gripping account of the notorious movie disaster ‘Heaven’s Gate.’ Or The Smartest Guys in the Room, Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind’s chronicle of the collapse of Enron, and The Big Short, Michael Lewis’ tale of the cratering of the national economy. Eccentric Orbits . . . is a tale of ham-fisted management that’s lively enough to invite comparisons to those modern classics.” Los Angeles Times “An exhaustive account . . . Eccentric Orbits not only offers good corporate drama, but is an enlightening narrative of how new communications infrastructures often come about: with a lot of luck, government help and investors who do not ask too many questions.” Economist “Eccentric Orbits is a story rich in larger-than-life characters, including shady Cold War operatives and warrior-like Motorola executives . . . Bloom gives a wonderful sense of what an engineering marvel Iridium was.” Bethany McLean, Strategy Business (Best Business Books 2016) “An inspiring history as well as an effective business thriller . . . Bloom argues convincingly that creating and then saving Iridium was one . . . desperately difficult and brilliant achievement.” New Scientist “Extensive . . . Sprawling . . . A detailed and entertaining history of the rise, fall, and rebirth of Iridium.” Space Review “A good read.” Market