Rocket Lab enters satellite communications market with $8-billion deal
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Set us as preferred Rocket Lab took a big step Monday to better compete with rivals SpaceX and Amazon, announcing an $8-billion acquisition of satellite communications company Iridium.The Long Beach rocket-and-satellite maker is buying a company that provides critical communications services to pilots, mariners and others, while giving Rocket Lab a foothold in the emerging satellite-based mobile phone market.“We are going to absorb it, optimize it and scale it into something that is really truly fantastic,” said Rocket Lab Chief Executive Peter Beck in a YouTube presentation of the deal.Business Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced Monday it has purchased $17 billion in wireless spectrum from financially troubled EchoStar to boost its Starlink cellular service.Rocket Lab is paying $54 a share for McLean, Va.-based Iridium — $27 in cash and the rest in shares.
Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo are providing $3.6 billion in financing in the deal, which is expected to close next year.Iridium’s 66 low-Earth-orbit satellites provide voice, data, navigation and other services to remote regions and across the globe to 2.55 million government, defense, aviation, maritime and commercial subscribers.Iridium reported net income of $114 million in 2025, up 2% from the previous year.Revenue climbed 5% to $872 million.The market for mobile cellular and other satellite-based communications is growing rapidly.Elon Musk’s SpaceX spent $17 billion last year to acquire spectrum from EchoStar and then followed it up with a $2.6-billion purchase.
The spectrum will allow its Starlink broadband satellite network to provide mobile phone service worldwide.Business Amazon is offering Globalstar shareholders either $90 in cash per share, or 0.32 shares of Amazon stock with a value capped at $90 a share.In April, Amazon agreed to acquire satellite op...