In one respect the headline is not new. The fact that Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES will not adopt arch-rival Eutelsat’s adventurous Ka-band strategy has been known for some time. But what is new is the determination that SES president Romain Bausch now re-states the SES message. Addressing investors and analysts this week Bausch stated bluntly […]

Would-be global pay-radio broadcaster Worldspace is finally entering full Chapter-7 bankruptcy. The company, such as it is, has just $9,975 left in its bank account. Worldspace’s main assets (two ailing satellites and a ground spare) were sold to its founder, Noah Samara, following its entry into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2008. Since then a […]

So, a few days in and Facebook shares have fallen almost 20 per cent from their bloated debut. It now emerges that Morgan Stanley, lead book runner on the IPO, issued a downgraded forecast following Facebook’s own revised filing noting the shift to mobile use would slow down its revenue growth. However, accusations are flying […]

Luxembourg-based SES Astra is preparing to launch Ultra-HDTV channels in “two to three years”. This is much earlier than previously anticipated. The news emerged from an analysts briefing and is to be further explained this coming week when SES holds its Investors Day in London on May 22. Specifically, SES president/CEO Romain Bausch told analysts […]

None of the scepticism surrounding the Nasdaq IPO of Facebook, including mine, has diluted the market’s enthusiasm and now the price range has been lifted – valuing the business at about $105 billion – and the amount of stock for sale has been increased 25 per cent, so the company will raise about $17 billion. […]

Malaysia’s Measat satellite operator is suing Intelsat for some $29 million in a Californian court. Measat is alleging breach of contract and collusion over the handling of the launch of a Measat satellite in 2009. The writ’s details, contained in Case Number VC12-03702 (MEASAT Satellite Systems BHD against Intelsat Corp)  –  concerns damage done to […]

Eutelsat suffered its biggest one-day stock-market price fall since it went public in 2005. The satellite operator issued what was, in effect, a warning as far as future trading is concerned. Despite both its 3 month and 9 month trading being perfectly respectable (as we reported on May 11th) Eutelsat used the occasion to warn […]

As well as posting solid results (revenue up 12 per cent) for its overall pay-TV business, DirecTV’s management stated on an analysts call that its Latin American division is now the broadcaster’s “biggest growth engine” adding more net subscriber growth than the North American parent business. “Our Latin America business has quickly become our biggest […]

Facebook has named the range for its impending IPO with a share price of $28-35. That’s an unusually wide range and targets a value between $85-95 billion; in other words a little caution has set in since talk of $100 billion+ and the chill is partly down to the surprise drop in profit YonY for […]

EchoStar has reported that three of its satellites suffered “solar array anomalies” during the first quarter of this year. The news, which emerged from an SEC filing, affected its EchoStar 6, 11 and 14 satellites. In addition its EchoStar 1 satellite, launched in December 1995, suffered a communications receiver anomaly. Although nothing is official, most […]