Journalist Chris Forrester is reporting at Advanced Television's infosite that Facebook already has tangible partnership and trading relationships with Hughes Network Systems, Viasat and Hispasat and has also tried to strike a deal with Spacecom — the firm might still sign Eutelsat to its roster of bandwidth suppliers... but it wants more.
Wesley Wong, head of connectivity, partnership and business development at Facebook, and reported by Space Intel Report from the Satellite Industry Forum, said the company is looking for other satellite partnerships in other regions covered by satellite.
Journalist
Chris Forrester.
“The model we have been exploring with these companies is satellite-enabled community Wi-Fi hotspots. And we’re seeing a lot of great traction form these companies getting out there. In the next 6-12 months, we’d like to see more organisations out here willing to take that step outside their comfort zone of B2B, to B2B2C. That’s what we’re looking for,” quoted Space Intel Report.
He said that some satellite operators are doing “great things” and that Facebook didn’t want to be a competitor or even a customer. He said that Facebook isn’t in the market to buy a bunch of capacity, but was in the market to work with satellite operators.
Additionally, Chris is reporting that pay-radio operator SiriusXM had planned to raise $750 million of extra borrowings in the form of Senior Notes due for repayment in 2024.
However, such was the positive response from potential lenders that it doubled the sum, to $1.5 billion, and priced the borrowings at 4.625 per cent.
The company says it intends to use the net proceeds from this offering, together with cash on hand, to redeem a portion of its 6.00 per cent Senior Notes due 2024 at a purchase price of 103.00 per cent of the principal amount thereof plus accrued and unpaid interest.
This is but the latest in a series of similar financial announcements. Back on June 5th, SiriusXM raised $1.25 billion of Notes due for repayment in 2029. Last September, it agreed to buy music streamer Pandora for $3.5 billion.