Investors Throw Away More Money On LightSquared

Investors threw another $265 million at LightSquared, the troubled LTE 4G wireless provider with the audacity to compete with Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S), Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless. Many observers think the company is doomed and it has not even launched a product.

The firm said:

LightSquared, the nation’s first wholesale-only integrated 4G-LTE wireless broadband and satellite network, announced today that it has raised $265 million. The capital was drawn from both existing investors as well as new investors in the company. LightSquared will use these funds for general corporate purposes, which includes constructing its world-class 4G-LTE wholesale network. Over the last 12 months LightSquared has raised over $2.3 billion

 

 

 

 

It is telling that the announcement did not carry more detail about the sources of capital.

Philip A. Falcone, the head of Harbinger Capital Partners, had put in a great deal of the money into LightSquared, and his fund’s investors are, on the whole, not happy about it.

NetworkWorld reported recently, “A U.S. House of Representatives committee has stepped into the fray over startup LightSquared’s planned mobile data network, and passed a bill that would block the Federal Communications Commission from spending any money granting the carrier a waiver it is seeking.”

LightSquared has almost no chance of succeeding

Douglas A. McIntyre