Christine Thropp
Iridium Communications looks to expand its portfolio of assured positioning, navigation and timing services through a potential $115 million deal to acquire Satelles.
Reston, Virginia-based Satelles is a provider of satellite-based time and location services that work to complement and secure GPS and other GNSS-reliant systems, Iridium said Monday.
The Satellite Time and Location service of Satelles uses the Iridium satellite constellation’s broadcast paging channels to provide precise timing information while protecting global industries and digital critical infrastructure against GNSS vulnerabilities.
“Acquiring Satelles makes perfect sense for Iridium and is consistent with what our strategy has always been, which is to take advantage of our unique network to do what others can’t or do it better than anyone else can,” remarked Iridium CEO Matt Desch. “STL is the superior solution available today, and we have been following and investing in Satelles’s technology roadmap to allow us to create even more opportunity.”
The 2024 Wash100 awardee also pointed to the growing market for assured PNT services, saying, “It’s a perfect application of our network, and this solution solves a problem for critical industries better than anything else.”
Iridium plans to establish STL as a business line that will be headed by Michael O’Connor, CEO of Satelles. By 2030, the new Iridium arm is expected to record an annual service revenue of over $100 million.
The company already has an approximately 20 percent ownership stake in Satelles from three previous investments, and the remaining percent will be paid for about $115 million. The acquisition is expected to wrap up in the coming weeks.
