McLean’s Iridium closes on Satelles deal

McLean-based Iridium Communications, a global satellite communications company, has completed its previously announced acquisition of Satelles, a Reston-based provider of satellite-based time and location services that assist GPS and global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), the company announced Tuesday.

Iridium first announced the acquisition in March. The positioning, navigation and timing service previously known as STL from Satelles will now be called Iridium Satellite Time and Location. According to Iridium, the service protects GPS and other GNSS-reliant systems’ time-synchronized applications from spoofing, when hackers trick a GPS receiver into calculating a false position, and jamming, when hackers interfere with GPS satellite signals, making them ineffective.

Using small hardware that doesn’t require outdoor antennas, Iridium STL can help protect critical infrastructure, data centers, 5G base stations and applications across the aviation, maritime, land mobile and Internet of Things sectors. The service works indoors and continues to work during regional GNSS system outages, according to a news release.

Previously, Iridium disclosed that the company had an ownership stake of 20% in Satelles through three earlier investments, and that it would pay about $115 million for the other 80%. This purchase was Iridium’s first acquisition.

“We’re ready to step on the gas and expand the availability of Iridium STL to markets around the world,” Matt Desch, the company’s CEO, said in a statement. “With our experienced partner ecosystem and global footprint, this needed capability can quickly help make the critical services we all rely on every day more efficient, reliable and secure.”

Iridium, which assumed all rights to the Satelles patent portfolio, expects STL to generate over $100 million in service revenue annually by 2030 and additional revenue from equipment and engineering, according to the company.

In 2023, Iridium reported a total revenue of $790.7 million, up 10% from 2022, and net income of $15.4 million, an improvement from $8.7 million in 2022.