John B. Breaux: “last year this Committee and Congress passed legislation to privatize INMARSAT [International Maritime Satellite…”

“last year this Committee and Congress passed legislation to privatize INMARSAT [International Maritime Satellite Organization]. As part of the privatization, INMARSAT is required to hold an initial public offering [IPO]. INMARSAT's IPO deadline is set for December 31 of this year. Since the IPO market continues to be in bad shape, INMARSAT and its investment advisors would like time to see if the market improves. INMARSAT was established in 1979 to improve maritime communications especially for distress and safety signals. Over the past two decades, INMARSAT has branched out to serve both maritime markets and increasingly any markets requiring mobility--shipping, oil and gas exploration and the FAA. Since the IPO market has nosed-dived, INMARSAT has been waiting for conditions to improve. All of the extensions available to INMARSAT have now been used and the FCC has no more discretion to extend the deadline. The dilemma is that if INMARSAT does not hold the IPO it will be in violation of U.S. law, and if it does hold the IPO, they could be found in breach of its fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders, possibly subjecting itself to shareholder lawsuits. My amendment would simply give the FCC the ability to extend the deadline an additional 18 months to see if the IPO market improves. A large number of U.S. companies have pulled their IPOs off the market given market conditions.”