Monthly Archives: June 2012

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) Cappie Pondexter scored 26 points and Leilani Mitchell added 18 to help the New York Liberty to a 79-74 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday night.

The victory was the second straight for the Liberty (2-5), who started off the WNBA season with five straight losses. Atlanta dropped to 2-4 after losing its second straight contest.

The Liberty took control of the game in the second part of the fourth quarter with Pondexter, who scored nine in the final quarter, making clutch shots throughout. Her driving goal with 8:29 left gave the Liberty the lead for good and her three-point play with 4:36 left pushed the lead to 70-66.

Angel McCoughtry had 21 points and 14 rebounds to pace Atlanta, while Aneika Henry had 14 and Sancho Lyttle 12 points for the Dream.

New York held Atlanta to just six points over the final 4:53 to secure the win.

The two teams traded leads over the first three quarter. Atlanta led 62-61 heading into the final period.

Pondexter hit a jumper in the lane after putting on a dribbling exhibition to give the Liberty a 63-62 advantage with 8:29 remaining and Mitchell made a long 3-pointer to push the lead to 66-62 with 5:56 left.

The Liberty lost their first five games before beating Indiana at home on Sunday to end the longest winless streak to start the season in franchise history.

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Pondexter leads Liberty over Dream

John Malones Liberty Media is trying to get permission from the Federal Communications Commission to use its near majority ownership of Sirius XM Radio to take control of its board of directors. Since a tussle started in March, Sirius has opposed Liberty at the FCC and so far the FCC has rejected Liberty, basically because Liberty had not announced specific steps on its plans to effect the director election. Last week Liberty asked for reconsideration and announced some of those steps.

There is more to this dance than meets the eye. This is not about your normal struggle to control a company. Liberty has enough shares to effectively control Siriusonce the regulators give their blessing. And earlier this year, a standstill agreementwhich prohibited Liberty from trying to get more directors or otherwise control Siriusexpired.

Libertys move is probably the opening gambit in a process to harvest for Liberty shareholders the massive gain it has in its investment in Sirius. In return for loaning around half a billion dollars to Sirius when it was in dire straits during the global financial crisis, Liberty was given preferred stock convertible into 40% of the common stock of Sirius, as well as minority representation on the Sirius board.

Based on current market prices, Siriuss current market capitalization will be almost $12 billion when all those convertible securities are converted. If Liberty sold its shares now, that would be a lot of taxes to pay. And simply spinning off Sirius shares to Liberty shareholders would trigger even more taxesunless Liberty spent billions of dollars buying a lot more Sirius shares first.

But there are other transactionscomplex as they may bewhich could be used to separate Sirius from Liberty and even effect a sale of Sirius with no significant taxes. Although Sirius cannot be spun off in a tax efficient manner, Liberty could spin off its other businesses as a whole (think of it as New Liberty) and leave Sirius as pretty much the sole remaining asset of Old Liberty. And voila, Libertys shareholders have effectively received the Sirius shares without paying any taxes. And in one more wrinkle, it is possible that Sirius could be sold immediately thereafter without incurring tax as long as it was in a stock-for-stock merger. You may have read about this referred to as a Reverse Morris Trust transaction, named after an ancient tax case. Liberty has experience in this type of transaction as the DirecTV deal had some of these elements in it.

The problem is that these more complex transactions would require an extensive negotiation with the Sirius board. And because Liberty effectively controls Sirius (whether or not a majority of its directors are Liberty employees), Delaware law essentially requires Liberty to negotiate not with the full board, but with a committee of directors unrelated to Liberty.

So why is Liberty pushing so hard to get the FCC to let it grab a board majority? Because having control of a majority of the board could have significant practical implications even if Liberty couldnt cram a transaction down the boards throat. The whole dynamic of the negotiation can change once Malone has hands-on control of the company. Delaware law requires that independent directors still have the power to say no to a deal. But once Liberty has a majority of the board, it will have the power to control all other decisionsincluding what will happen if the independent directors cannot come to a deal with Liberty.

For example, the Liberty CFO appeared on CNBC last Friday and expressed support for current management. But then, in a very small shot across the bow, said that Liberty tends to make its weight known on issues relating to capital policy and that he expected Sirius to throw off a lot of cash in the future. That could be a sign that Liberty could decide to push for dividends or even a recapitalization if it does not get its way on a deal. As long as all shareholders are treated the same, Liberty could probably effect its will without the concurrence of those independent directorsonce it has a majority of the board.

At the moment it all seems to be about posturing. Liberty is trying to get itself into the best position it can to get what it will ultimately want, which is probably going to be a DirecTV type of transaction in which Liberty shareholders either receive the Liberty shares in Sirius or Sirius is sold in a tax efficient manner.

And the Sirius board has opposed Liberty so far apparently in an attempt to maximize its negotiating position.

Read more from the original source:
Dealpolitik: Liberty Media Steps Up its Complex Dance with Sirius

USS Liberty underway in the Chesapeake Bay on July 29, 1967, upon her return from the Mediterranean Sea.

Forty-five years ago, the USS Liberty was attacked in international waters by Israeli jet fighters and torpedo boats.

The attack killed 34 members of the crew, and wounded 174 more on board. Both U.S. and Israeli governments conducted inquiries about the incident, and decided the attack was a result of Israeli confusion about who the USS Liberty was.

Many veterans don't agree.

This Friday, a USS Liberty memorial service will be held at the graves of the Liberty victims at Arlington Cemetery, in part to remember, but also to accuse.

A Facebook page for the event asks supporters to sign a petition calling for a renewed investigation of the attack. The petition suggests a U.S. government cover up, noting that the U.S. initially dispatched aircraft to aid the wounded USS Liberty, but say they were later recalled.

The page also points supporters to reports on the incident from USS Liberty veterans, including a draft letter to Congress asking for a better investigation.

"They were ordered to be abandoned by two flights of Sixth Fleet rescue aircraft," alleges the letter. "Until these facts are acknowledged.... any attempt to honor those who were killed in service to the United States on the USS Liberty is incomplete."

This past Memorial Day, Sen. John McCain was heckled about the Liberty attack while speaking to a crowd in California. "What about the cover-up for Israel of the USS Liberty?!" the heckler shouted. He was promptly escorted out by Secret Service.

In 2004, documents on U.S. foreign policy during the USS Liberty incident were declassified and published in a trilogy. At the time, Harriet Schwar, editor of the trilogy, told the State Department her staff found no evidence the U.S. knew about Israel's orders to attack the USS Liberty.

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USS Liberty Memorial Service Renews Calls of a Government Cover-Up

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Green Automotive Company (OTC:GACR) announced today that it has entered into detailed discussions with Liberty Electric Cars Limited (www.liberty-ecars.com), a UK-based developer of Electric Drive Trains, unique Battery Management Systems and provider of full support programs for all types of Electric vehicles. These discussions will lead to Liberty technology being used to convert conventional internal combustion engine driven vehicles into zero emission electric vehicles. Liberty, formed in 2006, was the first company in the world to successfully convert the Range Rover into a high speed pure electric 4x4 capable of 200 miles on a single charge and driven by 4 individual motors. The Liberty Electric Range Rover was hailed as the worlds best luxury EV in 2010 and provided the most telling example of the companys capabilities. Libertys expertise will serve as Green Automotives foundation for its expansion into the European Electric Vehicle market as well as provide the technology for the conversion activities planned for the North American market.

As I disclosed in several of our past public announcements, and in greater detail in our First Quarter March 31, 2012 Information and Disclosure Statement filed with OTCMarkets.com, said Fred Luke, President of Green Automotive Company, we have elected to not make the Companys primary business that of importing, performing the homologation, and then competing against a host of others now entering the market of retailing Electric Passenger Vehicles. Putting the last 2 years of import and homologation knowledge in the proper prospective, it is clear to us that our fastest and least expensive path to revenues from the Electric Vehicle (EV) will be to focus on the conversion of conventional internal combustion engine-driven vehicles of all types, particularly Mass-Transit and passenger vehicles which have already passed the US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) tests, to make them into zero emission vehicles.

According to Mr. Luke, this move comes following disappointing test results during the homologation program and failing negotiations with Zotye for as to the Zotye Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV). It was determined by management and our independent engineers, at Roush Industries, said Mr. Luke, that the Zotye SUV would struggle to pass the stringent crash tests required by the DOT, FMVSS and NIHSTA, without substantial expenditure and time. At which time the Company began seeking alternatives to replace the Zotye vehicles with automobiles that the Company could bring to market in a more expeditious and efficient manner.

On January 17, 2012 the Company announced that it signed a Letter of Intent pursuant to which it would join forces with Niyato Industries in an effort to accelerate the plans of both companies to bring domestically manufactured Electric Passenger Vehicles to the US market this year. However, Fords announcement that it would be rolling out its own line of EVs, beginning with the Focus and Fusion http://inhabitat.com/ford-announces-2012-ford-focus-electric-will-get-extra-2500-in-tax-credits-in-california/ made it very difficult for us to justify going any further with the Green Automotive-Niyato joint venture. In the process of due diligence on Niyato, the Companys management determined that it was not in its best interest to continue with Niyato as Niyato did not appear to have the immediate manufacturing facility for the proposed conversion of the vehicles it represented to have under contract to convert to EVs, nor did it have a prototype upon which to develop reasonable manufacturing costs, and it appeared to be under-capitalized to finance its plans, requiring the Green Automotive to provide the necessary capital.

Taking into consideration the costly and time consuming (24 to 36 months) efforts to move the Zotye Vehicles through the stringent import tests required by the DOT and NIHSTA, and the capital position of Niyato, negotiations with Niyato were put on hold and alternate solutions were sought.

The first of the Companys new partnership targets was Liberty Electric Cars Limited, a UK-based conversion and EV support company which currently designs, develops, manufactures and markets electric vehicle drive trains for use in its own converted vehicles and for sale to OEMs for incorporation into their production. Their focus is on larger platforms from 4x4 through to commercial vehicles, where they operate in a niche market with few competitors. Liberty Electric Cars Limited also supplies after sales support, training, and upgrades for electric vehicle users throughout Europe and Middle East.

Liberty, through its E-Tech division, is involved in a number of advanced research programs for developing next generation EV solutions, many in partnership with Tier 1 automotive manufacturers. The E-Tech engineering team can count over 2,500,000 miles of EV expertise, and were the first people to design and build a ground up electric truck. In addition, they own the UKs largest EV retail company, which has sold over 1400 electric vehicles and they supply, through their E-Care division, a comprehensive after-market EV support program throughout Europe for electric trucks and cars.

Their clients include such high profile names as UPS, Fed-ex, Navistar, Veolia, Tesco and many more.

In November 2010 Liberty entered and successfully completed the Royal Automobile Club's first annual "Future Car Challenge" where 2 Liberty Pure Electric Range Rovers drove from Brighton to London, with 5 people in each car including a film crew in one, ending with an exciting public display on Regent Street in the centre of London. In addition to Libertys expertise in engineering solutions for electric vehicles, and providing the most comprehensive after market program for electric cars and trucks, Liberty also offers a range of exciting electric transport solutions.

Excerpt from:
Green Automotive to Join Forces with Liberty Electric Cars Limited