RocketLab收购铱星S-4披露竞购细节与Viasat处境

08.26.26 Iridium’s potential buyers and who’s left for Viasat? On August 13, RocketLab filed the S-4 registration statement for the acquisition of Iridium, which just like Amazon and Globalstar a couple of weeks earlier, set out details of the process that led to the deal being struck. In this case RocketLab and Iridium began discussions on December 1, 2025, followed by a call between the CEOs on December 15. Further meetings continued in January and February and RocketLab began due diligence in March. After the Amazon acquisition of Globalstar was announced on April 14, the next day RocketLab delivered its first offer of $42.50 in RocketLab shares. An updated offer of $52 per share ($15 in cash and $37 in RocketLab shares) was submitted on June 3 and this was updated further to $26 per share in cash and $26 in RocketLab shares on June 22, before being finalized at $54 (again 50/50 cash and shares) the next day. The dates on which RocketLab began discussions with Iridium are consistent with my assumption that RocketLab was Globalstar’s Party A that made an initial bid but pulled out of the process with Globalstar on December 4. What is remarkable about the deal is how Iridium was able to push RocketLab’s offer up by over 25% despite there being relatively little competition for Iridium’s assets. The registration statement identifies three parties A, B and C as potential rival bidders, but the only one of these that made a serious offer was Party A, which had initially began meeting with Iridium in November 2025 and conducted due diligence in parallel with RocketLab, before submitting an initial all cash offer of $41 to $45 per share on June 2, which it refused to raise further. After the Amazon-Globalstar announcement, Iridium’s advisors at Evercore reached out to 10 other potential strategic counterparties of which 4 signed confidentiality agreements but only one (Party B) entered into formal due diligence on May 13 and terminated this two weeks later without making an offer. The only other identified party (Party C), which had not been the subject of Evercore’s outreach, had their CEO reach out to Iridium’s CEO on May 7, but on May 12 said it would not be submitting a proposal to acquire Iridium. Iridium and Evercore clearly knew at Satellite 2026 about rumors that the Globalstar deal was coming and appear to have cleverly extended the process so that this announcement would inevitably lead to speculation about an Iridium sale and drive up the share pric…