Syncom’s New Frontier
It was one of the biggest deals that almost didn’t happen. As part of an investment team, Syncom Venture Partners (No. 8 on the be private equity firms list with $410 million in capital under management) was negotiating with telecommunications giant Motorola Inc. to acquire its satellite subsidiary, Iridium L.L.C. As the parties hammered out the details, a technician at Iridium’s Tempe, Arizona, operations center stood ready to begin the process of bringing the $5 billion constellation of satellites—orbiting at an altitude of 483 miles—into the Earth’s atmosphere to destroy them.
