Inmarsat today announces the acquisition of the business and substantially all of the assets of Globe Wireless LLC  Headquartered in Palm Bay, Florida, Globe Wireless is a  provider of value-added maritime communications services to the shipping market. 

NSR's Broadband Satellite Markets 12th Edition report, released today, forecasts the entire broadband satellite market’s installed base of VSAT sites, broadband access subscribers, trunking and backhaul sites will increase by just over 5 million by 2022 and generate US$9.9 billion in revenues. Fully 87% of this growth will come from new subscribers to satellite broadband access services with the North American, Western European and Latin American markets leading the way.

Israel-based satellite operator Spacecom issued a formal notice to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that it was open to offers for a sale – or merger – of its company. Spacecom operates the Amos fleet of satellites which covers Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Spacecom has hired investment firm JPMorgan as an adviser for the transaction. Spacecom is controlled by Eurocom Holdings Ltd., which owns several telecom companies in Israel. The note to the stock exchange stated that the process is at an early stage “and there is no certainty that a deal will be carried out”.

Globecomm Systems Inc. a leading communications solutions provider, announced today that an investor group led by Wasserstein & Co. has successfully completed the previously announced acquisition of Globecomm.  As a result of the merger, each share of Globecomm common stock (other than shares held by Globecomm as treasury stock and shares as to which holders properly exercised dissenters’ rights) was converted into the right to receive $14.15 in cash, without interest, and Globecomm’s common shares will no longer be publicly traded.

In a sign of how profoundly Internet-based media is revolutionizing the way consumers access video entertainment content, more than 1.7 billion devices capable of accessing over-the-top (OTT) broadband content like Netflix and Hulu are set to ship by the end of 2013. Shipments of OTT-capable devices will rise 20 percent this year from 1.43 billion units in 2012, according to a new Consumer Electronics Topical Reportf rom IHS Inc.  

The latest broadband forecasts from Point Topic have dropped the expected number of broadband lines in the UK by almost 8% at the end of 2016, from just under 26 million lines to 23.88 million.

 “There are two primary reasons. The remaining pool of offline households are proving difficult to convert with disposable income for example struggling to recover but the delay in the BDUK deployment has to take a share of the blame,” says Oliver Johnson, CEO at Point Topic.

The World Teleport Association (WTA) published its annual rankings for the Top Teleport Operators of 2013. The annual rankings of companies by revenue and revenue growth are compiled by surveying teleport operators around the world as well as referencing the published results of publicly-held companies. 

Coordinating an alliance of the world’s leading industry trade associations, the Society of Satellite Professionals International announced  the launch of a global campaign to change the global conversation about satellite.  Called the Industry Message Summit, the effort aims to focus attention on the industry’s striking contributions to human welfare, safety and prosperity around the world.

World leaders from government, industry and research institutions gathering this week in Mexico City for ITU’s World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS) have sent a strong message calling for the international community to explicitly prioritize information and communication technologies (ICTs) as essential to every nation’s future social development and economic growth.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully completed its first geostationary transfer mission, delivering the SES-8 satellite to its targeted 295 x 80,000 km orbit at 5:41 pm local time.  After two previous attempts that were marred by technical glitches, Falcon 9 executed a picture-perfect flight, meeting 100% of mission objectives.  To view videos of the Pre-Launch briefing with Elon Musk and interviews with SES executives click here.