SES is buying rival Intelsat for $3.1 billion (€2.99bn) in a deal announced last April. The purchase had been expected to be completed in the second-half of 2025 once all regulatory hurdles had been overcome. Now, however, SES wants to wrap the agreement by June as it cites “fast-moving industry developments” and competitive threats from the likes of Elon Musk’s Starlink.
On December 19th, 2024, SES CEO Adel Al-Salah met with very senior FCC staffers including Commissioner Brendan Carr (who will head the FCC after Donald Trump’s inauguration) to lobby for a speedy conclusion to the purchase, according to a report in specialist air intelligence publication Runway Girl Network.
The move needs the FCC approval, as well as that of other agencies and regulators, but in particular the transfer of Intelsat’s transmission licences to SES.
“The communications industry is undergoing a period of rapid change and is becoming more competitive than ever due to the entrance of large, well-financed market disrupters and other new players; new technologies increasing spectrum capacity and efficiency; rising customer demand for ubiquitous, global connectivity; and the continued convergence of the communications ecosystem,” SES’s legal counsel (Nancy Eskenazi) wrote in a post-meeting letter to FCC secretary Marlene H. Dortch.
“In light of these developments, SES reemphasized the need to close the proposed transaction by June 2025,” she added.
The combination of SES and Intelsat is seen as being beneficial to the two (largely) geostationary satellite operators who are both being challenged especially in the aeronautical in-flight sector. Putting the two satellite giants together will allow significantly greater operational efficiencies and progress.
