Rwanda is backing a scheme to launch 300,000 satellites into low Earth orbit. The project, E-Space, is being advised as CEO by serial satellite entrepreneur Greg Wyler (who was instrumental in forming O3b and OneWeb). E-Space is now hiring senior staffers. Production of the satellite fleet is due to commence next year. E-Space has now […]
Intelsat and OneWeb have signed a “global distribution” partnership, an initiative to provide a global service for In Flight Communications and broadband to aircraft. Intelsat already has considerable skin in the game because it bought in 2020 the commercial aviation connectivity business from Gogo for what many have seen as being a timely ‘bargain’ of […]
The world’s three leading satellite operators are talking about mergers. Eutelsat has announced its plan to merge with OneWeb, while SES is reported to be in talks to merge with Intelsat. But the market has delivered a devastating comment on both sets of reports. For example, Eutelsat suffered a massive fall in its share price […]
The EU has firmly ruled out the proposed Eutelsat/OneWeb merger as qualifying as the likely candidate for the EU’s own planned Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) broadband constellation. As reported by Sami Kassab, satellite analyst at investment bank Exane/BNPP, Christophe Grudler, the member of the European Parliament in charge of the EU’s LEO satellite project announced […]
Investment bank Exane/BNPP, in a comprehensive report on the proposed merger between satellite operator Eutelsat and Low Earth Orbit constellation OneWeb, says the “increase in interest rates, inflation, the war in Ukraine, [OneWeb] Gen 2 funding requirements all suggest a bit of patience could have improved the financial outcome for minority shareholders… but the new […]
It emerged during a media and analyst briefing from Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke that the company’s suspension of its dividend payments to shareholders could extend beyond the already announced 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 trading years. This current year’s dividend of €0.93 will be paid, subject to Board approval, in November 2022. Berneke declined to commit specifically […]
Northern Sky Research (NSR) has taken a deep dive into the satellite capacity supply industry which is now past the Covid-19 contraction and, in some areas, growing at a rapid pace. In revenue terms, the 2021 level of $12.1 billion (€11.9bn) is forecast to grow to $30 billion in 2031 representing a cumulative opportunity of […]
As widely anticipated, Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat is to merge with London-based constellation operator OneWeb. A MoU was signed on July 25th. A statement from the pair said: “The combined company will create a new global leader in the Space industry – securing the future of OneWeb and ensuring it can remove the barriers to […]
Eutelsat’s full-year 2021-2022 results were inevitably overshadowed by the news of its “transformational” merger plan with OneWeb. The headline was a statement that the company expects to return to top-line growth in its full year’s trading during 2023-2024. However, in terms of hard cash, almost all of Eutelsat’s key divisional verticals were in negative territory […]
Following weekend reports that British/Indian satellite broadband constellation OneWeb was “near a merger” with Eutelsat, the Paris-based operator has issued a Clarification statement, saying that it had engaged in discussions with its co-shareholders in OneWeb “regarding a potential all-share combination to create a global leader in Connectivity with complementary GEO/LEO activities”. Eutelsat is already a […]