By the time this article got forwarded to me, the URL for the original article was gone, but the title's pretty indicative :-) www.metricom.com has a "goodbye" page, with pointers to the bankruptcy auction for interested bidders. A google search reveals that back in September, Metricom turned down Aerie's offer for $20M (oops), and also that Aerie had been planning to spend $3.5B to build a 20000 mile fiber backbone for the ISP they wanted to be.
>From: "Steve Stroh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "Dewayne Hendricks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Metricom assets sold for $8.25 million >Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 14:36:19 -0800 >MIME-Version: 1.0 > > >Dewayne: > >What's not mentioned in this article: >* What Aerie bought was mostly intellectual property - the software and >designs for the radios, patents, etc. >* Unclear is if Aerie bought the existing inventory. Apparently there are >lots of radios already manufactured, but not deployed, sitting in storage. >* Metricom's WCS spectrum is not included in the sale to Aerie (apparently >the asset managers feel that it will fetch considerably as much as $50M - >sometime). Unlikely given AT&T Wireless Services' decision to junk their >Fixed Wireless System which will free up more WCS spectrum. >* None of the physical assets of the network are included in this sale, >including poletop radios, wired access points, network operation center, >etc. All of that was "abandoned in place" to free Metricom of the liability >of back rent, lease payments, and other liabilities. >* Rights Of Way were similarly abandoned... > >It'll be interesting to watch! For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
