Subject: [NEXTEL-1] McCaw Lawsuit Circles AT&T Wireless

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 08:44:26 -0400

George Mannes
McCaw Lawsuit Circles AT&T Wireless
By George Mannes
Senior Writer
10/22/2003 07:09 AM EDT
URL: http://www.thestreet.com/tech/georgemannes/10121135.html

In the investing world, some lawsuits are like volcanoes: You can safely ignore
them for years -- unless, of course, they decide
one day to erupt.

That's the situation faced by AT&T Wireless (AWE:NYSE) , the chief defendant in an
obscure legal battle it inherited in a 1994 acquisition.

So far, AT&T Wireless has successfully avoided liability in the case, rooted in
events that took place 14 years ago.
But an eight-week-long trial stemming from the case -- a trial which is expected
to go to the jury this week -- provides an
opportunity for significant financial damage to the wireless carrier. As AT&T
Wireless reported in a Securities and
Exchange Commission filing earlier this year, the plaintiffs in the case have
asserted claims for damages totaling $8.2 billion.
Though damages that large are rarely awarded in civil cases -- and even more
rarely upheld on appeal -- damages even a fraction of that amount wouldn't exactly
be welcome news for AT&T Wireless shareholders. A damages award of $400 million --
another figure apparently kicked around in the case -- would more than erase the
$357 million in net income, available to common shareholders, that the carrier
reported in the first half of 2003.

Yet the outcome of the trial -- final arguments are scheduled for Tuesday --
remains far from certain. AT&T Wireless, in fact,
prevailed at an earlier trial in the case, though that decision was reversed when
an appeals court indicated that certain issues that had been decided by the trial
judge needed to be resolved by a jury.

"We firmly believe that the case has no merit," an AT&T Wireless spokesman said
Tuesday, "and we're optimistic the jury will
agree."

AT&T Wireless shares, which have ranged between $4.91 and $9.18 over the past
year, fell 15 cents Tuesday to close at $8.12.

The company is scheduled to release third-quarter financial results after
Wednesday's market close.
The cast of characters in the case -- being heard in DuPage County Circuit Court
in Illinois -- reads almost like the answers to
a telecom industry trivia quiz.

One party in the lawsuit is In-Flight Phone Corp., a company founded by Jack
Goeken -- not only a co-founder of MCI in the
1960s, but also a co-founder of airplane telephone pioneer Airfone in the 1980s.
Goeken started In-Flight Phone after selling
Airfone to GTE (now part of Verizon (VZ:NYSE) ).

Another player is McCaw Cellular Communications, a cellular-telephone empire built
by Craig McCaw and sold to AT&T (T:NYSE) .
The plaintiffs in the case -- a shareholder group that took over the case from
In-Flight -- allege that McCaw Cellular stole
trade secrets from In-Flight Phone in 1990 as the two companies, and others,
prepared to apply for Federal Communications
Commission licenses enabling further airplane-to-ground phone calls.

Following up on a complaint originally filed in 1993, a 1996 amended complaint
alleges that McCaw Cellular expressed
interest in making an investment in In-Flight. After McCaw Cellular signed a
confidentiality agreement, In-Flight provided
McCaw with proprietary business, financial, marketing, operating and engineering
information so that McCaw could conduct
due diligence before making such an investment, according to the complaint.

After In-Flight made this information available to McCaw Cellular, according to
the complaint, McCaw announced it wouldn't
invest in In-Flight. Instead, allege the plaintiffs, McCaw Cellular used the
information it had gained to file a separate application
for an FCC license in a partnership with Hughes Network Systems, creating unfair
competition for In-Flight.

Goeken subsequently sold In-Flight to MCI, while the McCaw-Hughes partnership,
Claircom, ended up at AT&T when Ma Bell bought McCaw Cellular.

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 08:55:57 -0400

Craig  has been a victim of  "McCaw Jinx"- Nextel, XOXO, OneWorld syndicate, NextNet
have drained billions of dollars from his vast fortune. Now AT&T may get hit with the
"McCaw Jinx".........