News Analysis

Mountain View, Calif., June 13, 2014--Google has entered into an agreement to buy Skybox Imaging for US$ 500 million in cash, subject to adjustments Skybox’s satellites will help keep Google Maps accurate with up-to-date imagery.

Ottawa, Canada, June 10, 2014-- International Datacasting Corporation today announced its financial results for the first quarter of Fiscal 2015 ended April 30th, 2014.  Revenues totaled CDN$ 2.8 million for the first quarter of Fiscal 2015, 47% lower than the prior year's first quarter.

Melville, N.Y., June 5, 2014--Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (NASDAQ:CMTL) today reported its operating results for the three and nine months ended April 30, 2014. Net sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2014 were US$ 88.9 million compared to US$ 69.9 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2013.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, June 5, 2014--Inmarsat and Arabsat subsiary company Hellas-sat today announce that they have signed an agreement together to launch a joint satellite into 39⁰ E orbital location. The satellite will carry two missions; first, the S-band payload (designated ‘EuropaSat’), which represents Inmarsat’s commitment to deploy an integrated telecommunications network to deliver aviation passenger connectivity services on a EU-wide basis and a 44 Ku-band transponders payload designated ‘Hellas-sat 3’ for Hellas-sat, that will replace the existing Hellas-sat 2 satellite. 

Montreal, Canada, June 2, 2014–Advantech Wireless Inc., a privately-held Canadian corporation and manufacturer of Satellite, RF Equipment and Microwave Systems, announced today that its sales for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2014 were increased by 22% over previous year results. The April 30th 2014 year end is the 4th consecutive year of profitability for the company. 

Hong Kong, June 2, 2014--Satellite operator ABS is preparing for a major business expansion with the launch of ABS-2A & ABS-3A in 2014/2015 and further satellites to be added to the fleet in the following two years. ABS launched its sixth satellite, ABS-2 in February 2014, covering 80% of the world's population including the emerging markets of Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Russia / CIS. 

Bethesda, MD, May 29, 2014--Lockheed Martinhas entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of the Astrotech Space Operations business of Astrotech Corporation for US$ 61 million. Astrotech Space Operations is a satellite launch preparation service provider, from final testing and fueling to encapsulation and day-of launch operations.

Scottsdale, Ariz., May 28, 2014--The set-top box market has generally maintained historical leadership positions based on a cable, satellite or IPTV focus.Of the top five set-top box vendors—Arris, Cisco, Technicolor, Pace and Echosta—most are heavily weighted to one sector, or, in some cases, have robust proportions serving two of the three sectors.This definition won’t meet the needs of modern operators today who are looking at extending their services over multiple networks.

Pacific Ocean, May 27, 2014 – The EUTELSAT 3B satellite was successfully launched by a Zenit-3SL rocket operated by Sea Launch AG from the ocean-based Odyssey Launch Platform in the Pacific Ocean. Lift-off of the rocket carrying the six-tonne satellite took place on Monday 26 May at 21.10 GMT/UTC.