[FPSPACE] Re: The MirCorp soap opera continues

[Dwayne Allen Day]

On Sun, 15 Oct 2000 dconst+@pyrrhus.cimds.ri.cmu.edu wrote:

> Re: MirCorp's potential revenues (and public relations)
> 
> From: http://www.msnbc.com/news/475645.asp?cp1=1

Sorry about the messed up message.  I was forwarding something sent to me
and my server handled it fine.


dconst+ wrote:
>This all together looks very puzzling. $1.3B on one side and a 
>miscoordination,  and turnarounds of positions, actions and words of
>Semenov and Kathuria on the other side.

Well, it helps to keep in mind that the previous MSNBC article quoted
Semenov.  This article quotes MirCorp saying what they thought Semenov was
thinking (in other words--it never quoted Semenov, just MirCorp's spin).

You can also find Semenov being quoted pessimistically at
www.aviationnow.com, which is the Aviation Week website.

In all of these articles, you have to look for the one or two pieces of
information that is new.  Previously, one notable piece of info was that
the October 16 Progress launch is a *government* launch.  It is NOT a
MirCorp launch (remember that several weeks ago, MirCorp claimed that it
was launching the Progress).  Now, MirCorp is claiming that it will pay
$10 million for the Progress in November. (I tried using this line on my
landlord once and it didn't work.)  

Semenov has stated it before--if they don't have the money now, where are
they going to get it from in a few weeks?  They don't have any new
customers. (The other new piece of info is that Tito will fly in
January.  But I wonder if this will happen if Energia does not get paid in
November.)


> It has been expressed on this mailserver before, and I would strongly
> agree that the release by MirCorp its business strategy is is long
> overdue at this point.

What we have already seen of their business strategy does not look
encouraging:

-no advertising revenue so far
-no micro-G research revenue so far
-no internet portal revenue so far
-no comsat or remote sensing revenue so far (remember their promises about
providing live news coverage of volcano eruptions?)

They've got a tourist and that's it.  One $20 million check is not going
to pay for four Progress flights.


> This release is needed even by MirCorp itself - at least, it will help
> convincing everyone, including MirCorp business partners - Energia and
> Russian Government, that this business strategy exists.

If you read the Energia press release from early October, you see that
they do not mention MirCorp once.  Not once.  I think it is clear that
they do not have much faith in MirCorp's ability to come up with the
money.  (I would guess that they never did--I think that their approach
was to take money from dumb westerners because it was there, not because
it represented a long-term plan.)


> Where do these numbers - $50M to $100M in immediate revenues are coming from?

Out of thin air.


> biotech R&D and products or Internet Application Services alone, have a 
> potential to make Mir Corp profitable. However, in either or another
> case, by now, the specific products and services should have been identified
> and started to work on. If this is the case, why to keep it in such a 
> secrecy? 

As a previous poster noted, they have been going at it for over eight
months now and haven't generated any additional investors other than
Kathuria and Anderson (both of whom now seem willing to speak to the
press, but unwilling to spend more of their own money on MirCorp).  If the
markets existed, wouldn't they have attracted more money by now.


> Also, if MirCorp has indeed identified a winning market strategy, it could be
> demonstrated via news releases and announcements of:
>  
> partnerships, alliances, subcontracts, beta-products, calls for subcontract
> applications, beta-liquidity (dedicated customers' corps) size - everything

As someone pointed out to me a day or so ago, if you look at their
management team (not Kathuria and Anderson), you will not find anyone with
experience running multimillion dollar corporations.  You find people with
political connections with Energia and the Russians.


> On the other hands, the lack of this information creates perception that 
> nothing real (aside from space tourism deals) exists, just plans and
> dreams ...

The fact that they have not announced any customers for zero-G research is
an interesting indicator--how come they could not even find a single
university or research institute willing to front the cash for an
experiment?




DDAY