United States: Iridium Communications acquires PNT provider Satelles for $115 million

Iridium Communications, in its first ever acquisition has acquired Positioning Navigation and Timing (PNT) provider Satelles. The company revealed that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Satelles, Inc., a provider of satellite-based time and location services akin to GPS and other GNSS-reliant systems.

 Iridium CEO, Matt Desch  said, "This market is growing; it's a perfect application of our network, and this solution solves a problem for critical industries better than anything else. 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. 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 opportunities. We're excited to formally bring the Satelles team "in-house," to the Iridium family."

STL is to become a new business line of Iridium which will be led by Satelles CEO, Dr. Michael O'Connor who will report directly to Desch. "Bringing STL into the Iridium family is going to be a supercharger for this capability that will benefit our customers and our society. I look forward to a bright future together," said O'Connor.