Amazon is moving in on the orbital mobile connectivity market that’s currently dominated by Elon Musk’s Starlink. The company on Tuesday said it had agreed to buy satellite company Globalstar, known for powering Apple’s “Emergency SOS” feature, for $11.57 billion in cash.
The $90-per-share deal will net Amazon all of Globalstar’s satellite operations, infrastructure, and mobile satellite services spectrum licenses, enabling the larger company to flesh out its young satellite business, Amazon Leo, with direct-to-device services ahead of its launch later this year.