Iridium Announces Second-Quarter 2015 Results; Updates 2015 and Long-Range Outlook

McLean, Va., July 30, 2015--Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:IRDM) ("Iridium") today reported financial results for the second quarter of 2015 and updated its full-year 2015 and long-range outlook. Net income was US$ 26.0 million, or US$ 0.21 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2015, as compared to US$ 15.0 million, or US$ 0.14 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2014.

Operational EBITDA ("OEBITDA") for the second quarter was US$ 61.0 million, as compared to US $54.7 million for the prior-year period, representing a year-over-year increase of 12% and an OEBITDA margin of 60%. OEBITDA grew largely due to higher government service revenue and lower product warranty costs.

The company updated its full-year 2015 outlook for total service revenue growth and OEBITDA. The company now expects:

• Total service revenue growth between 1% and 3% for the full-year 2015
• Full-year 2015 OEBITDA of approximately $230 million. OEBITDA for 2014 was $216.5 million

Iridium reported second-quarter total revenue of US$ 101.9 million, which consisted of US$ 78.0 million of service revenue and US$ 23.9 million of equipment, engineering and support revenue. Total revenue declined 1% versus the comparable period of 2014, while service revenue grew 2% from the year-ago period. Service revenue, which represents primarily recurring revenue from Iridium's growing subscriber base, was 77% of total revenue for the second quarter of 2015.

The company ended the quarter with 766,000 total billable subscribers, which compares to 705,000 for the year-ago period and is up from 748,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2015. Total billable subscribers grew 9% year-over-year, driven by growth in machine-to-machine ("M2M") customers.

"2015 has shaped up to be a more challenging year than we expected," said Matt Desch, CEO, Iridium. "We've lowered our annual service revenue and Operational EBITDA guidance to largely reflect ongoing macroeconomic headwinds. Our voice market continues to be pressured by a strong dollar and weakness in the energy sector, and we're also seeing reduced oil and gas activity now impact our M2M results. Despite these hurdles, we believe the foundation of our long-range growth trajectory remains intact."

Desch concluded, "Our satellite constellation is performing at a high level and continues to serve our customers well. We're building on our highly defensible leadership position in the handset business with new products including our recently launched push-to-talk service, and our global, real-time offering in the M2M market, which continues to gain traction in the heavy-equipment OEM sector. Our Aireon joint venture continues to build momentum with an expanded agreement to support Aireon's additional power needs, as well as recently added agreements to collaborate on the potential deployment of space-based global aviation monitoring with the air traffic management agencies of Iceland and New Zealand. These agreements lay the groundwork for future data services contracts and expand the planned deployment of the Aireon service around the world. Overall, we have excellent long-term growth prospects and continue to focus on 2018 and the transformational change we expect in our cash flow profile."

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