Globalstar shares surged 12% in premarket trading in New York...
...marking their biggest jump in nearly five months, after the Financial Times reported overnight that Amazon is in talks to acquire the satellite operator, a move that would certainly intensify the race to build satellite constellations.
The FT cited people familiar with the Amazon-Globalstar talks and said both sides are still negotiating over "some of the complexities," including the fact that Apple owns a 20% stake in the satellite communications company, which operates 24 satellites in low Earth orbit, arranged in a Walker-24 configuration, and sells services for emergency messaging, asset tracking, remote voice/data links, and IoT connectivity in places where cell coverage is weak or nonexistent.
Globalstar powers Apple's emergency satellite feature on iPhones, but that system is far more limited than the high-speed broadband network offered by SpaceX's Starlink.
Amazon has deployed around 200 internet satellites into orbit as part of its Leo program, formerly called Project Kuiper. This is dwarfed by the more than 10,000 active satellites operated by Starlink, which provides high-speed internet to more than 10 million customers worldwide.
The rationale for Amazon buying Globalstar's older, higher-orbit satellite constellation was not immediately explained in the FT report or by its sources familiar with the deal talks.
But our view is that a potential buyout of Globalstar could give Amazon a faster path to more infrastructure, customers, and operational know-how to scale its Leo program and become a real competitor to Starlink, which is years ahead of any competition and even nation-states.
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