Amazon satellite deal takes the battle of the billionaires into orbit

{"text":[[{"start":5.43,"text":"Jeff Bezos is both latecomer and underdog in the quest to fill the sky with satellites. Amazon, the ecommerce giant he chairs, is now paying $11bn to acquire formerly middling satellite company Globalstar, presumably in the hope of closing the gap with fellow corporate stargazer Elon Musk."}],[{"start":27.16,"text":"Launching projectiles into space has been a challenging pursuit for many companies, resulting in numerous bankruptcies and considerable cash burn. Globalstar has spent decades trying to create a viable business model. By 2025 it generated just under $300mn in revenue, but still no net profit. "}],[{"start":49.86,"text":"Musk’s SpaceX has changed the game and upped the rivalry, if not the profitability. The rocket company is set to go public this year at a near-$2tn valuation, much of that attributable to Starlink, a satellite-based broadband data service. SpaceX dominates the so-called low Earth orbit satellite (LEO) marketplace with thousands of objects already in flight. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":75.2,"text":"Amazon launched its own initiative, Project Kuiper, in 2019, renaming it Amazon Leo last November. The idea is that by 2028 it will offer a “direct to device” service where data is transmitted without the need for a traditional mobile phone service. "}],[{"start":93.93,"text":"Starlink is galaxies ahead. But Globalstar does give Amazon a cache of valuable spectrum for delivering satellite-based phone and broadband. Moreover, it has an existing partnership with Apple, whereby the iPhone maker’s devices rely on Globalstar to transmit data when ordinary mobile service is not in range. Amazon said on Tuesday that supported Apple products would now connect to Leo satellites instead. "}],[{"start":122.87,"text":"Even with the gravity-defying growth of SpaceX, it remains to be seen how big satellite broadband will really be, given terrestrial mobile is already a massive and mature business. But the ambitions of Bezos and Musk have boosted a previous generation of space wildcatters. SpaceX paid $20bn, partly in its own stock, for spectrum that was previously owned by Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar, catapulting the seller’s shares into orbit. Other satellite players like Viasat, MDA Space, AST SpaceMobile have seen their share prices soar as they become potential merger targets.   "}],[{"start":166.6,"text":"Amazon with its market capitalisation approaching $3tn can afford to spend even double-digit billions on moonshots. Bezos, who also has his own personal space travel business, Blue Origin, clearly believes space is a source of real future profit or at least adventure. In any case, Earth probably now feels too small for two entrepreneurs who number among its richest individuals. Those on terra firma can benefit from their rivalry, as customers or as M&A sellers."}],[{"start":211.82,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1776324002_3019.mp3"}