News Analysis

Budapest, Hungary, October 12, 2021--Hungaro DigiTel Kft. (HDT), a joint subsidiary of 4iG PLC (75%) and Antenna Hungária Zrt. (25%), has entered into a final agreement with Space-Communication Ltd. (Spacecom) to acquire a 51% stake in the company. Spacecom, listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, is a satellite operator and service provider with a global coverage, consisting of four geosynchronous satellites, which provides its services in Hungary and the Central and Eastern European region via the AMOS 3 satellite.

by Martin Jarrold

London, UK, October 12, 2021--As facilitated by GVF, the editor-in-chief of this publication, Virgil Labrador, will be presenting a business outlook analysis during the SatExpo Summit at CABSAT 2021 and asking, “What are satellite operators betting on?” With the digitalization of all industries, and changes in the way we live, work, learn, communicate and consume entertainment, Virgil Labrador will examine how satellite operators can make sure they are developing the right offerings and targeting the right sectors to compete and thrive in an increasingly crowded market, a market which continues to thrive in GEO, expand in MEO, and evolve in LEO.

by Robert Bell

New York City, NY, October 11, 2021--Satellite operator SES recently announced that it was seeing strong uptake for its Cloud Playout service, as customers embraced it for management and playout of linear TV channels over satellite.  Creating the service was a shrewd move for a satellite operator that generates 60% of total sales from its video business.  After initial resistance, US and European broadcasters have been shifting media management and playout to the cloud to take advantage of its robust content management and scheduling applications and the scalability of the cloud.  In its press release, SES cited an Ethiopian broadcaster, which suggested that the customer uniquely trusted SES to successfully guide its entry into cloud processing. 

by Elisabeth Tweedie

Los Angeles, Calif., October 10, 2021--As we are all aware the satellite industry is in a state of flux, maybe a state of transition.  The low earth orbit (LEO) constellations have been grabbing headlines for several years now, and many of us, have pointed to the lessons of the 1990s and predicted that few, if any of them would last long enough to become viable businesses.  And that still may be the case.  

Paris, France, October 6, 2021–Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) has exercised a call option on a portion of the latest OneWeb funding round subscribed by Bharti, for a consideration of $165 million, taking its shareholding from 17.6% to 22.9%, making it the second largest shareholder in OneWeb.

London, U.K., September 22, 2021--OneWeb, the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications company, announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Texas-based TrustComm Inc., a provider of managed satellite communications and professional services to commercial and governments organizations. OneWeb announced the planned acquisition of TrustComm in May 2021 and received all necessary regulatory approvals enabling the transaction to close.

London, UK, September 21, 2021--Seraphim Space Investment Trust plc (LSE: SSIT) announced the acquisition of the holding of Arqit Quantum Inc. from the Seraphim Space LP (Seraphim Space Fund) . As set out in the IPO prospectus, Seraphim Space will acquire four assets from the Seraphim Space Fund for newly issued ordinary shares in the Company. This acquisition represents the second of those transactions to complete.

Vienna, Va., September 14, 2021--Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR), a provider of space-based data, analytics and space services, and exactEarth Ltd. (TSX: XCT) announced today that the companies have entered into a definitive arrangement agreement under which Spire will acquire exactEarth for approximately US$161.2 million (CAD$204.2 million) in cash and stock, which implies ~9.1x exactEarth’s Enterprise Value to LTM revenue.

Paris, France, September 13, 2021 – Providence Equity Partners, a  private equity firm that specialises in the media, communications, education, software and services industries, has agreed to acquire a majority shareholding in Marlink from Apax Partners SAS, a European private equity firm based in Paris. The transaction results in an enterprise value for Marlink Group of approximately US$1.4 Billon.

Paris, France,  September 8, 2021–Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) confirms the closing of its US$ 550 million equity investment in OneWeb announced on April 27, 2021. Subject to completion of the subsequently announced investments in OneWeb by Bharti and Hanwha, Eutelsat will hold a 17.6% stake.