Account

Company

  Menu

Description

In the early 1990s, Motorola, the legendary American company, made a huge gamble on a revolutionary satellite telephone system called Iridium. Light-years ahead of anything previously put into space, and built on technology developed for Ronald Reagan's 'Star Wars,' Iridium's constellation of sixty-six satellites in six evenly spaced orbital planes meant that at least one satellite was always overhead.
Iridium was a mind-boggling technical accomplishment, surely the future of communication. The only problem was that Iridium was also a commercial disaster. Only months after launching service, it was $11 billion in debt, burning through $100 million a month and bringing in almost no revenue. 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 former CEO of Pan Am, heard about Motorola's plans to 'de-orbit' the system and decided he would buy Iridium and somehow turn around one of the biggest blunders in the history of business.
Eccentric Orbits masterfully traces the birth of Iridium and Colussy's tireless efforts to stop it from being destroyed, from meetings with his motley investor group, to the Clinton White House, to the Pentagon, to the hunt for customers in special ops, shipping, aviation, mining, search and rescue. Impeccably researched and wonderfully told, Eccentric Orbits is a rollicking, unforgettable tale of technological achievement, business failure, the military-industrial complex and one of the greatest deals of all time.

Tag This Book

This Book Has Been Tagged
It hasn't. Be the first to tag this book!

Our Recommendation

Track It. This book has been £6.02 within the past year.

Notify Me When The Price...

  • £
  • If I'm already tracking this book...

to track this book on eReaderIQ.

Track These Authors

to track John Bloom on eReaderIQ.

  • to be notified each time the price drops on any book by John Bloom.
  • to stop tracking John Bloom.

Price Summary

  • We started tracking this book on July 3, 2016.
  • This book was £6.64 when we started tracking it.
  • The price of this book has changed 67 times in the past 2,847 days.
  • The current price of this book is £8.99 last checked one day ago.
  • This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is £6.02.
  • The lowest price to date was £5.59 last reached on February 1, 2018.
  • This book has been £5.59 4 times since we started tracking it.
  • The highest price to date was £9.98 last reached on March 20, 2020.
  • This book has been £9.98 2 times since we started tracking it.

Genres

Additional Info

  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Lending: Disabled
  • Print Length: 685 Pages
  • File Size: 6,785 KB

We last verified the price of this book about one day ago. At that time, the price was £8.99. This price is subject to change. The price displayed on the Amazon.co.uk website at the time of purchase is the price you will pay for this book. Please confirm the price before making any purchases.