ORBCOMM (NASDAQ: ORBC) will buy Inmarsat partner SkyWave Mobile Communications under a $130 million transaction as part of ORBCOMM’s efforts to add new operational and manufacturing tools in its machine-to-machine offering, SatNews reported Thursday.The potential acquisition will be in the form of $122.5 million in cash and a $7.5 million promissory note for some of Inmarsat’s shares in SkyWave.
Inmarsat will offset this promissory note with its plan to acquire SkyWave’s satellite network business for $7.5 million under a separate deal, the report said.
The resulting transaction will put ORBCOMM and Inmarsat as joint owners of SkyWave’s IsatDataPro technology, while Inmarsat will operate the satellite network assets from its facilities in Canada, Netherlands and New Zealand.
