The Financial Times revealed on Thursday that Amazon is in negotiations to purchase the US satellite telecom company Globalstar in an effort to strengthen its bid against Elon Musk’s Starlink.
The British publication reported that the two businesses were working out the more intricate details of the acquisition agreement, citing persons with knowledge of the situation.
It follows the filing of documents for what may be the biggest-ever public stock sale by Musk’s SpaceX, which runs the Starlink satellite internet service.
According to Starlink, it has over 10,000 satellites that provide connectivity to individuals on the ground.
US tech and e-commerce giant Amazon, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, is building a competing network called Amazon Leo, which has more than 200 satellites in orbit.
Globalstar, whose market value is about $9 billion, has its own, smaller “low Earth orbit” satellite constellation.
The newspaper said one factor complicating the lengthy talks was the fact that Apple holds a 20 percent stake in Globalstar, meaning that Amazon and Apple also had to negotiate a deal.
AFP has contacted Amazon, Globalstar and Apple for comment.
The Financial Times report said no deal had been struck and discussions could still collapse.
Globalstar’s share price has soared nearly 230 percent over the past year.
In October, Bloomberg reported that the company was exploring a potential sale with several potential buyers including SpaceX.
Globalstar told the Financial Times it “does not comment on industry speculation or rumours,” while Amazon declined to respond.
On Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter confirmed SpaceX’s confidential IPO filing to AFP, which would reportedly put the rocket and satellite builder on track to list its shares by July.
Media reports have said the SpaceX IPO could be valued at a whopping $75 billion or more. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
