I really like this.
Iridium is an excellent biz. I have long felt they were undervalued and unfairly lumped in with legacy space disruption despite the company being 1) largely insulated from SpaceX, 2) a cash-flow machine, and 3) having valuable spectrum.
Rocket Lab picks its application layer and gets:
- Valuable L-band spectrum (frankly, SpaceX or Amazon could've scooped the biz just for the spectrum)
- Doubles revenue (slow growth, but growth)
- Cash flow, dividend, and share buyback biz
- Coming up on a constellation refresh, times up nicely with Neutron. Comms businesses need a lot of sats (lots of launches)
- Backup connectivity, IoT, D2D, emergency comms for govt. & enterprise market. (Largely insulated from SpaceX)
- A very attractive PNT, GPS alternative; lots of potential yet to be unlocked. (Largely insulated from SpaceX)
- Deep, deep govt. customer relationships
The deal helps justify Rocket Lab's valuation and creates the second fully vertically integrated space biz.