Long trade : GOGO +16% (9/18)

• Sept. 7:  #4; vol. 814K
• ticker:  GOGO

 

Gogo Inc.(GOGO) : Moody's lowers the company's credit ratings

• ticker:  GOGO

** charts after downgrade **  

 

Moody's lowered the company's credit ratings across the board.

In a research note published after the closing bell on Monday, Moody's lowered Gogo's corporate credit rating and probability-of-default grade from B3 to Caa1. The speculative grade liquidity rating fell from SGL-2 to SGL-3.

Moody's view of Gogo moved from "highly speculative" to "substantial risks," with a negative outlook that could lead to even further rating cuts in the near term.

Gogo (GOGO) plummets as American threatens to dump its Wi-Fi

• ticker:  GOGO

Gogo shares plunged today after the company disclosed that one of its biggest customers, American Airlines, said its in-flight Wi-Fi service is lacking.

The Chicago-based tech company's shares were down about 28 percent five minutes before the market was to close today.

In a regulatory filing, Gogo said: "American notified Gogo that it considers a competitor's connectivity service to offer a material improvement over our early-generation air-to-ground service with respect to a portion of American's fleet representing approximately 200 aircraft."

Gogo provides in-flight Wi-Fi for American, Delta and other airlines. The company employs more than 1,000 people at its downtown headquarters, which opened last year.

Gogo is headquartered in Chicago's West Loop at 111 N. Canal St.

Technology for providing Internet connectivity to aircraft has been evolving rapidly, from ground-based cellular to satellite-based service, which is much faster and cheaper than earlier generations of satellite technology. Gogo is early in the process of rolling out the new satellite technology.

Under its contract, American can potentially terminate its contract with Gogo if a competitor's equipment provides substantially better performance. However, Gogo also has the right to bid to upgrade its equipment to match the competitor's.

"We plan to submit a competing proposal to install our latest satellite technology—2Ku—on this fleet," Gogo said in the regulatory filing.

American filed suit Friday, notifying Gogo of a competitor's service.

Gogo (GOGO) : 18-month performance

• ticker:  GOGO

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Gogo (GOGO) reported Q4 earnings Thursday 13 March 2014

Beat on EPS by $0.01, beat on revs; guided FY14 revs in-line.

Gogo announced surprisingly strong fourth-quarter earnings results this morning. Sales jumped by 46% to hit $93 million -- well ahead of the $85 million that analysts expected. However, the in-flight wireless provider's operating loss grew as it continued to spend heavily on international expansion. Gogo lost $14 million this quarter, compared to $10 million in the year-ago period. The company provided a confident outlook for 2014 that called for sales to spike by 30% as more aircraft are upgraded to faster data delivery systems.

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Gogo (GOGO) shares drop 15% as IPO lockup period ends

• ticker:  GOGO

Gogo Inc. shares dropped sharply today as lockup restrictions on the stock expired and one of its largest investors, a private-equity fund, distributed shares to its limited partners.

Gogo's stock fell 13 percent to about $27 this morning. But the stock, which had a slow start after going public in June, was up 81 percent from its $17 IPO price before today, when Ripplewood Holdings announced the distribution of shares to its own stockholders.

New York-based Ripplewood, which invested in Gogo in 2006, owns 38 percent of the company's stock. Lockup restrictions, which prevent insiders from trading or distributing their shares for a predetermined period after an IPO, expired. But it will be up to Ripplewood shareholders to decide whether to sell their Gogo shares.

"This share distribution was made to provide our limited partners with greater flexibility to achieve liquidity," Ripplewood founder Timothy Collins said in a statement. "We continue to believe that Gogo has a very bright future as a leader and pioneer in the in-flight connectivity and digital entertainment solutions markets, and we have been extremely pleased by the performance of the company and the success of our investment in Gogo."

Gogo, based in Itasca, provides in-flight Wi-Fi and entertainment on commercial planes, including Delta and American Airlines. The company, formerly known as Aircell, was founded in 1991 and took a lot of time and money to get off the ground.

Gogo's second-largest shareholder, Oakleigh Thorne, holds about 29 percent of the company's stock.

Gogo (GOGO) lands first international customer

• ticker:  GOGO

Gogo Inc., which provides Internet access on commercial flights, has landed its first international airline customer.

The Itasca, Illinois-based company said today it won a contract to provide broadband to Japan Airlines' 77-plane domestic fleet, starting next year. JAL will use Gogo's satellite-based Internet service, which was announced in January, joining launch customer Delta Air Lines, which is installing it on its international fleet.

Gogo stock rose 5 percent in morning trading to $17.10. It went public at $17 on June 21 but traded as low as $9.71 on Aug. 21.

The deal is critical to Gogo because most U.S. airlines have chosen broadband providers.

"We're in open dialogues with carriers around the world," Gogo spokesman Steve Nolan said.

Gogo emerged as the early leader, landing Delta, American Airlines, US Airways, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines. About 80 percent of planes in North America that have Wi-Fi use Gogo's equipment, although competition is increasing. Chicago-based United Continental Holdings Inc. tested Gogo's service on some aircraft before choosing Panasonic's satellite system for its international fleet.

Adoption of in-flight Internet connectivity has been slow. Overall penetration finally has risen above 6 percent, though on some transcontinental flights it can top 30 percent.

The company initially developed a ground-based system, using a network of cellular towers, for domestic service. But airlines see the highest demand — and the highest likelihood that customers will pay for the service — on long international flights. That meant Gogo had to come up with a satellite-based solution. It waited for next-generation technology that has much higher capacity. The first satellite-equipped planes are expected to be in service this year.

In the meantime, it's been cranking up the capacity of its ground-based network to keep up with demand for bandwidth-hogging uses, such as video. Gogo doesn't allow passengers to stream Netflix, but they can surf YouTube.

Last year, Gogo began installing additional antennae on aircraft, tripling the average peak download speeds on board to about 12 megabits per second. By combining satellite and ground-based systems, it can boost speeds to about 60 megabits per second. That's nearly double the average peak U.S. broadband speed of about 36 megabits per second, according to Akamai Technologies' "state of the Internet" report.

Gogo (GOGO) 2 months after IPO

• ticker:  GOGO

Gogo Inc., (GOGO),  the largest provider of inflight Internet in the U.S., on Wednesday plans to unveil a system that uses a combination of satellites and cellular towers, connecting airplanes to the Web at speeds six times as fast as its current best option.

Virgin America Inc. will launch Gogo's new inflight Wi-Fi service in the second half of 2014 and says it expects to eventually upgrade its 53 aircraft with the product.

That comes after JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU -1.74% received government approval last week to install a new high-capacity satellite link on many of its aircraft, an inflight Wi-Fi solution that can support streaming video to fliers' devices from Netflix Inc. NFLX -0.38% and Hulu, among others.

JetBlue, which has lacked inflight Internet, plans to launch the service on some aircraft this year and equip its entire fleet of 180 aircraft by the end of 2015.

Gogo sets the prices for its onboard Wi-Fi, with options including $14 one-day passes and $50 monthly passes.

JetBlue said it is reviewing pricing for the service, but that basic Internet use initially will be free, while the airline will charge fliers for streaming content, which uses more bandwidth. Other airlines that provide Wi-Fi currently block access to streaming services like Netflix, to avoid cannibalizing their own fee-based inflight entertainment.

The new technologies could mean Internet speeds in the air that are at least as fast as the average Internet speeds for Americans on the ground—something that could help break down flier resistance to paying and make the service profitable.

Gogo (GOGO) began trading on the NASDAQ on 21 June 2013

• Gogo completes IPO at $17 per share, loses altitude 
• Itasca, Illinois-based company, formerly called AirCell was founded in 1991 to provide cell phone service to aircraft.
• ticker:  GOGO

Gogo (GOGO) sets terms for $176M IPO

• ticker:  GOGO

Gogo Inc., which provides in-flight Wi-Fi access to airlines such as Delta and American, hopes its long-delayed IPO will get cleared by investors.

The Itasca, Illinois-based company said Monday in a filing with securities regulators that it intends to raise $165 million to $187 million by selling up to 11 million shares to the public at $15 to $17 per share.

Gogo Inc., a provider of in-flight connectivity, plans to sell 11 million shares at between $15.00 and $17.00 apiece in an initial public offering (IPO) of common stock.  

At the midpoint of the proposed range, the Itasca, Illinois-based company would raise around $176 million and command a market value of $1.38 billion.

The company offers in-flight internet connectivity and other voice, data and entertainment products and services. Its suite of connectivity services include: passenger connectivity, passenger entertainment, in-flight portal and operations-oriented communications services.

In March 2013, the company entered into an agreement with Delta Air Lines to provide Ku-band satellite connectivity services on its entire international fleet. In February 2013, Gogo Vision became available to passengers on four aircraft operated by the international carrier Scoot, which serves Singapore, Australia, China, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. 

Gogo plans to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including costs associated with international expansion.

For the year ended December 2012, the company posted a net loss attributable to common stock of $95.64 million on revenue of $233.5 million.

The company has applied to list its common stock on the NASDAQ under the symbol "GOGO." 

In-flight Internet firm Gogo files for IPO

(Reuters) — Gogo Inc., an in-flight Internet connectivity provider, filed with the U.S. regulators on Friday to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering of common stock.

• ticker:  GOGO

The Itasca-based company told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a preliminary prospectus that Morgan Stanley, J. P. Morgan and UBS Investment Bank were underwriting the offering.

Gogo, which has Delta Air Lines, US Airways and Bombardier as its customers, expects to list its common stock under the symbol 'GOGO.'

The filing did not reveal how many shares the company plans to sell, their expected price or the exchange it aims to get listed on.

The company intends to use the proceeds from the offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes, it said in the filing.

The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.