Steve Spengler, Intelsat’s CEO, firmly denies being the conduit for any alleged insider trading information over the sale of Intelsat stock by certain shareholders and the company’s chairman Dave McGlade. It has been alleged that two major investors, and Intelsat’s chairman Dave McGlade, sold in total some $260 million (€230m) of Intelsat stock ahead of […]
Judge Keith L. Phillips opened the formal hearings into Intelsat’s Chapter 11 exit plan. The process is scheduled to last about 10 days. Around 216 lawyers and observers attended the Zoom meeting for sessions which were described as “complex”. The court was told that more than 90 percent of claimants against the various Intelsat entities […]
SES Government Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES, has announced its new Common Operational Picture (COP) platform, Hydra, built exclusively to serve the US Government and military. Managed and operated in-house, SES says Hydra is a modular web-based monitoring and control system that provides end-to-end situational awareness in a single unified operational […]
Research from satellite-watcher Dr. D.S. Kelso at CeresTrak says that the past few days have been busy for the technicians at SES Astra and AsiaSat. Kelso says that Astra 1D has been shifted from its geostationary orbit to a higher ‘graveyard’ orbit as it reached the end of its operational life earlier in November. Astra […]
SES, in a motion submitted to Intelsat’s bankruptcy court, alleges that Intelsat is continuing to “disregard” the role and importance on Intelsat US as the rightful recipient of the FCC’s C-band incentive payment of more than $4 billion (€3.55bn). The problem – which the bankruptcy court has yet to rule on – is the dozens […]
Intelsat has wrapped the first stage of the FCC-mandated clearance of C-band spectrum over the US. Intelsat qualifies (as does SES) for the FCC’s Phase 1 of the clearance scheme ahead of the December 5th deadline. Phase II must be completed by the end of 2023. Intelsat’s overall payment from the FCC for clearing both […]
SES says it has received validation from the FCC in regard to the satellite operator’s Phase I C-band clearing obligations. It means that SES will receive $1 billion (€0.89) in an incentive payment from the FCC during the next few months. There’s another almost certain $3 billion due to be paid by the end of […]
Quilty Analytics, in its latest quarterly ‘state of the industry’ report, quotes recognised satellite business leaders expressing their concerns on the risks to commercial space – and specifically LEO – and the launching of potentially tens of thousands of satellites. Quilty references three leading executives (Viasat’s Mark Dankberg, SES’s Steve Collar, and Steve Spengler, the […]
Intelsat’s lawyers filed a revised Reorganisation Plan from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy into the court on November 19th. Intelsat and its associated businesses have debts of some $15 billion that it is seeking to halve. While this is a considerable sum it is modest when compared to the likes of Enron’s bankruptcy ($63 billion back […]
A report from analysts at Quilty Analytics says that Charlie Ergen-backed satellite operation EchoStar is returning to growth mode. The firm says that EchoStar has reported its third consecutive quarter-year of solid top-line growth coupled with double-digit bottom-line growth. “In an unusual twist, however, the majority of this growth was driven by enterprise/equipment demand, including […]