SpaceX Is Buying Satellite Data Startup Swarm (cnbc.com) 28
SpaceX is acquiring satellite data start-up Swarm Technologies, in a rare deal by Elon Musk's space company that expands the team -- and possibly the technological capabilities -- of its growing Starlink internet service. CNBC reports: Swarm, which has 120 of its tiny SpaceBEE satellites in orbit, reached an agreement with SpaceX on July 16 to merge, according to an Aug. 6 filing with the Federal Communications Commission. The company will become "a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of SpaceX upon consummation of the Proposed Transaction," Swarm wrote in the filing. Terms and financial details about the deal were not disclosed. Swarm last completed a fundraising round in January 2019 at a $85 million valuation, according to Pitchbook.
The deal marks an uncommon acquisition for SpaceX, which tends to design and build systems in-house. But FCC licenses can be difficult and time-consuming to get approved, and Swarm will transfer control of of its satellite and ground station licenses to SpaceX as part of the deal, according to the filing. "Swarm's services will benefit from the better capitalization and access to resources available to SpaceX, as well as the synergies associated with acquisition by a provider of satellite design, manufacture, and launch services," the filing said. The company noted that the acquisition benefits SpaceX by bringing "access to the intellectual property and expertise developed by the Swarm team."
The deal marks an uncommon acquisition for SpaceX, which tends to design and build systems in-house. But FCC licenses can be difficult and time-consuming to get approved, and Swarm will transfer control of of its satellite and ground station licenses to SpaceX as part of the deal, according to the filing. "Swarm's services will benefit from the better capitalization and access to resources available to SpaceX, as well as the synergies associated with acquisition by a provider of satellite design, manufacture, and launch services," the filing said. The company noted that the acquisition benefits SpaceX by bringing "access to the intellectual property and expertise developed by the Swarm team."
I guess it's a good move for Elon (Score:2)
I guess it's a good move for Elon but I have always liked to have at least a little competition and alternatives to choose from.
Re: I guess it's a good move for Elon (Score:5, Insightful)
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Good point! I guess Swarm played their cards well then!
Re: I guess it's a good move for Elon (Score:5, Funny)
Good point! I guess Swarm played their cards well then!
(Swarm) "Hey, can we get a ride?"
(Musk) "Gas, grass, or data mining. Nobody rides for free."
Re: I guess it's a good move for Elon (Score:4, Interesting)
Swarm was never going to be a competitor.
I haven't seen much horizontal expansion out of Musk's companies. He strongly prefers vertical expansion. The Tesla acquisition of Maxwell [techcrunch.com] is one example. I suspect Swarm has some IP that Musk wants.
Re: I guess it's a good move for Elon (Score:5, Informative)
I suspect Swarm has some IP that Musk wants.
I think this is the one. [uspto.gov]
Musk discusses a similar technique in this interview. [youtube.com]
Hmmmm ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Hmmmm ... (Score:5, Informative)
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Swarm wasn't a competitor. With Starlink, you can watch Netflix. On Swarm, you basically transfer a text. It's the technology and the brains behind it SpaceX wants.
The company that lets you watch Netflix via Starlink wants the brains behind a technology that lets you send a text? That's kind of like the company that designs stealth fighters coveting the brains behind the technology that lets you fly a $5 toy kite.
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I think the thought was that with only 120 satellites Swarn doesn't have the bandwidth to support much more than text. Starlink on the other hand has thousands of satellites and thus enough bandwidth to stream Netflix. This doesn't mean that the tech that Swarm is using isn't valuable to Starlink just a comparison of the current relative bandwidth of the two companies.
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Here we go again. Expand, acquire and generally exterminate all competition.
I'm just curious...what exactly did you expect from not merely a corporation, but an American mega corporation?
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Here we go again. Expand, acquire and generally exterminate all competition.
I'm just curious...what exactly did you expect from not merely a corporation, but an American mega corporation?
I thought I had spelled it out but I'll gladly repeat myself. I expected: Expand, acquire and generally exterminate all competition.
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SpaceX will need such a communication network on mars... but also won't want to waste many starships sending a full network of starlink satellites initially.
The plot thickens (Score:2)
SpaceX is teaming up with a Canadian company to beam advertisements into space [businessinsider.com].
Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC), a Canadian startup that provides technology services, exclusively told Insider that it's making space advertising possible with the help of SpaceX.
Samuel Reid, CEO and co-founder of GEC, said the company is in the process of building a satellite, called a CubeSat. One side of the satellite will have a pixelated display screen where the advertisements, logos, and art will appear, Reid said.
The company plans to load the CubeSat on to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which will take it into orbit and release it before the rocket reaches the moon.
Another way (Score:2)
Thousands of people signed up to get a snapshot of themselves in a frame from the Arkyd space telescope. Space based marketing might actually be a thing.
QQ: Has anyone seen what size the satellite is? For scale A 1U cubesat is cube 100mm to a side. At 40kg I'm guessing it's a 2 or 3U.
what is the alternative? (Score:3)
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I hope that we stop SpaceX from getting to Mars. I don't believe in a private company town being the only option on another planet. Literally no town is better.
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I hope that we stop SpaceX from getting to Mars. I don't believe in a private company town being the only option on another planet. Literally no town is better.
You would perhaps prefer the religious colony approach? Or maybe you prefer the penal colony method? Those are the other methods of establishing a colony in human history. I'm not too worried that the SpaceX company town on Mars will persist all that long.
On further reflection, it's worth trying the penal colony method. If we plot the relative pugnacity of Americans and Australians and extrapolate the resulting curve, Martian colonists should be importing alligators and polar bears in order to hybridize
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Why do you think that is?
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I'm not too worried that the SpaceX company town on Mars will persist all that long.
Why do you think that is?
Because if SpaceX starts landing massive payloads on Mars at the price they're aiming for, everyone and their dog will buy SpaceX launches to send their own payloads of equipment and supplies to Mars. If SpaceX lands humans on Mars, Earth governments will start getting really nosy and sending their own representatives. Followed by other companies, most likely as paying passengers. Such entities will use their own equipment in an effort to keep their representatives somewhat independent of SpaceX, at leas
SpaceBEE != StarLink competition (Score:5, Interesting)
RTFA, Wikipedia entry, etc: while they are both space-based telecom businesses, they target totally different user segments. SpaceBEE is IoT & M2M so their competition is low speed & bandwidth services like OrbComm, Inmarsat's, Globalstar's, & Iridium's M2M services.
Meanwhile StarLink competes with pretty much every high bandwidth provider including several terrestrial ones. With this purchase, StarLink can now compete with both classes equally and gets some IP (and, as mentioned, spectrum, ground stations, etc) to boot.
Not linking it, but SpaceBEE also is the one that got in trouble with the FCC (probably prodded by the military) for the birds being too small to track--blurb at the end of the article; definitely remember it making news in ham radio satellite circles as well.
Is SpaceX a Vogon Constructor Fleet? (Score:1)
Think about it. They're building spacecraft intended to leave Earth meanwhile they're filling the sky with satellites. Did anyone happen to check if there were any hyperspace bypass route plans on Alpha Centauri?