As I began writing this column news was filtering over media about the decision of the World Health Organization to designate the latest mutations to the spike protein of the Sars-Cov-2 virus as a “variant of concern”, and to use the Greek letter Omicron to name it (rather than the original designation of B.1.1.529). Thanks to the skills of scientists at South Africa’s Medical Research Council Genomics Centre the exact sequencing of the new variant was speedily completed and its details promulgated quickly to their colleagues in sister agencies around the world.

The November 2021 issue of  the Satellite Executive Briefing magazine focusing on the African Satellite Market sponsored by iKO Media Group is now available.  Featuring:

Update on the African Satellite Market by Omkar Nikam

Satellite Data Analytics Market by Prateek Yadav

Dead Ringers by Lou Zacharilla

Ground Segment:  All Change for a new Satcoms Era by Martin Jarrold

Better Satellite World: Satellites by the Dozen

PLUS Products Spotlight, Mergers and Acquisitions, Executive Moves, Market Briefs, Vital Statistics, Satellite Markets Stock Index and many more. Click here to read or download the file.

Rocket Lab acquires space hardware company Planetary Systems Corporation (“PSC”).  Crux CFO Advisors was the exclusive financial advisor in the transacation.

Technical paper and panel proposals are now being accepted for the Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology (BEIT) track of the NAB Show Conference, held at the 

Voyager Space Inc.  today announced its intent to acquire a majority stake in San Diego-based Space Micro. Space Micro is a highly innovative engineering-driven business focused on advancing high-performance satellite communications, digital, and electro-optical systems with over 2.7 million hours of space flight heritage.

Telesat Corporation announced today that it is now a public company and will begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (“NASDAQ”) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) under the ticker symbol “TSAT”. This follows the closing of Telesat’s previously announced transaction with Loral Space & Communications Inc.

NIC4, a division of Network Innovations, Inc., announces the acquisition of U.S. government contractor, Knight Sky LLC. The acquisition will effectively combine the expertise of both companies, enhancing the development and delivery of agile, secure and mission critical connectivity solutions for the collective clients of each organization. NIC4 will complement the existing Knight Sky managed network services with advanced technologies in the NIC4 MAVERICK VSAT services and will add additional resources and support to Knight Sky’s contracted U.S.

Laser communications specialist Mynaric AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange; M0Y, ISIN: DE000A0JCY11) announced that its management board today resolved, with the approval of the supervisory board, on the volume and the issue price of the public offering of American Depositary Shares (“ADSs“). The offering will produce gross proceeds of US$ 66,000,000 from the sale of 1,000,000 new ordinary shares of Mynaric in the form of 4,000,000 ADSs at a price of US$16.50 per ADS.

Viasat Inc., (NASDAQ: VSAT) and Inmarsat, a today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Viasat will acquire Inmarsat in a transaction valued at US$ 7.3 billion, comprised of US$ 850.0 million in cash, approximately 46.36 million shares of Viasat common stock valued at US$ 3.1 billion based on the closing price on Friday November 5, 2021, and the assumption of US$ 3.4

Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW), a leader in space infrastructure for the next generation space economy, today announced that it has acquired Techshot, Inc., a leader in biotechnology in microgravity, bioprinting, and on-orbit manufacturing needed for commercial space-based research and development.