- The companies aren’t confirming anything, but new buzz suggests SpaceX is the frontrunner to acquire Globalstar
- The deal could strengthen SpaceX’s position in satellite-to-phone services and deepen ties with partners like Apple
- It’s all speculation at this point – and the AWS-3 auction adds more intrigue
Rumors that SpaceX will buy GlobalStar were the buzz at SatShow 2026 last week.
“I think everyone’s convinced that there will be a sale of Globalstar,” Tim Farrar, founder of the satellite research firm TMF Associates, told Fierce. “A lot of people talked about that being Amazon. My best guess is that SpaceX will probably carry the day.”
Last year, a report surfaced that Globalstar Chairman Jay Monroe had talked with associates about potentially selling the company for more than $10 billion.
“I don’t know what the price is going to be,” Farrar said, adding that the $10 billion floated last fall could very well be in the ballpark.
Globalstar declined to comment. “Globalstar does not comment on industry rumors and Globalstar has never been able to discuss anything outside of public information on our D2D relationship,” a spokesperson told Fierce.
Fierce reached out to SpaceX as well and did not immediately hear back.
Globalstar’s shares, at around $66.29, were trading up more than 7% today. Its market cap is in the $7.95 billion range.
Starlink, Amazon and Apple too
Although the rumor mill was in high gear last week, no deal has since been announced, which could be for any number of reasons. With players the size of SpaceX at stake – and Apple too, because it uses Globalstar’s satellites to provide SOS services – it’s easy to see that negotiations could take more time than expected.
Farrar, who wrote about the sale speculation in his blog last week, said he believes Monroe was in talks with Amazon and then took its offer to SpaceX. It’s conceivable that SpaceX agreed to up the ante in an effort to further cement Starlink’s dominance of the satellite industry. Amazon is preparing to compete in the direct-to-device (D2D) and broadband market via Amazon Leo.
“I think SpaceX did an awful lot to beat up on Amazon,” including by opposing Amazon’s request for a launch deadline extension at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). “They’re trying to win as many customers as possible before Amazon gets to market.”
As for how all this went down, the thinking goes something like this: Amazon tried to team up with Apple to more directly challenge Starlink in the broadband and D2D space. Apple already has a deal with Globalstar and is invested in the company. SpaceX/Starlink then enters the picture and outbids Amazon.
“That could be a pretty valuable outcome for Starlink, regardless of whether or not it’s justified purely on the direct-to-device business and whether they need additional spectrum,” he said.
SpaceX and AWS-3 auction
The other big scuttlebutt in the satellite/terrestrial world is what SpaceX will do in the AWS-3 auction, which starts on June 2. The AWS-3 auction will include a total of 200 licenses for markets scattered across the U.S.
Reports surfaced last week (thanks Mike!) that SpaceX submitted an incomplete application to bid in the auction. The big question is what SpaceX plans to do in that auction, assuming it resubmits a completed application.
“I think leaping to the conclusion that they suddenly want lots of paired AWS-3 spectrum and they're going to spend lots of money to buy a terrestrial footprint – that seems like a big leap of assumptions,” Farrar said.
Instead, Farrar said he thinks SpaceX is primarily interested in two licenses for Moline, Illinois, and Cincinnati, Ohio, which it needs to pair up with spectrum SpaceX is buying from EchoStar. “They need them to complement what they’re already buying. They need to fill in the gaps as much as possible,” he said.
“It’s not a surprise that they are participating. I think everyone is getting a little bit carried away and assuming that this means that they want to buy lots of terrestrial spectrum,” he said.
Terry Chevalier, managing director at Sunstone Associates, agreed. He said if SpaceX actually goes through with the AWS-3 auction, it’s most likely to get the two remaining licenses that it didn’t get from the EchoStar transaction.
Still, “there is never real clarity on what people want or intent to do until the bidding begins … and even then you don’t really know until it’s all over and the dust settles,” he added.
FCC’s anti-collusion rule
But Chevalier also raised some other issues. For example, the FCC has an anti-collusion rule that disqualifies both bidders from an auction if they have overlapping controlling interests – that threshold is 10% or more.
“EchoStar’s stake in SpaceX after the transaction closes would likely fall around 3%, per some of the reporting out there, likely keeping them below that bright line,” he said.
However, the FCC’s communication prohibition is a separate and broader rule that prohibits bidders from talking with one another.
“It bars any applicant from sharing bids or bidding strategies with any other applicant in the same auction – regardless of ownership percentage. That creates some interesting questions about how SpaceX and EchoStar firewall that information among officers, directors and others given their ongoing commercial relationship and EchoStar's direct financial stake in SpaceX's success,” he noted.
The added wrinkle: The AWS-3 auction exists in the first place because of the controlling interest question around EchoStar's original AWS-3 licenses. The licenses being sold in the upcoming auction are ones that EchoStar’s Dish-backed entities Northstar and SNR had to give back to the FCC due to a ruling over their designated entity (DE) status.
“So the entity that caused the auction to happen is now a co-bidder alongside the company it just sold $20 billion in spectrum to. That makes for some good reading,” Chevalier concluded.