On Friday, Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital sued agricultural equipment manufacturer Deere & Co and several Global Positioning Systems companies. Harbinger filed a lawsuit for damages amounting to US$1.9 billion. The suit sought the return of the venture capital Harbinger had invested in LightSquared.
The defendants of the court case included GPS companies like Garmin International and Trimble Navigation Ltd. Both of them disagreed to LightSquared's plan to create a wireless network since it could intervene with GPS systems. GPS systems are currently utilized in everything from agribusiness to airline navigation. The Coalition to Save Our GPS and the US GPS Industry Council were the other defendants.
Fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation were the accusations made by Harbinger against the named defendants. Harbinger spent billions of dollars on LightSquared. It said it would not have made the investments if the GPS industry revealed the possible interference problems between 2002 and 2009.
Last Tuesday, Harbinger also sued Charlie Ergen and his Dish Network Corportion for US$4 billion. Falcone accused the television mogul for a loan-trading scheme that would strip his control over LightSquared.
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