Iridium Reports Q1 2024 Results, Completes 1st Ever Acquisition; Matt Desch Quoted

Iridium Communications (Nasdaq: IRDM) presented its Q1 2024 financial results, in which total revenue reacched $203.9 million, although slightly lower by 0.7 percent from a year ago.

Notably, the voice and data satellite communications provider’s net income increased 101.1 percent year-over-year to $19.65 million, while the subscriber base grew 7 percent compared to Q1 2023, Iridium said Thursday.

Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium and a 10-time Wash100 awardee, remarked, “Continued strong service revenue growth fueled Iridium’s business results in the first quarter. Subscriber growth and demand for Iridium’s mission-critical applications are driving new service development and free cash flow.”

As of March 31, the 2,333,000 total billable subscribers represent a 13.7 percent increase from Q1 2023 and 2.4 percent higher than in Q4 2023. The subscriber growth was highest in commercial IoT.

Iridium caters to commercial customers and the U.S. government. Its seven-year, $738.5 million Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services contract with the U.S. Space Force is in its fifth year.

On April 2, Iridium completed the acquisition of Satelles and integration of the company’s Satellite Time and Location service. Satelles is the company’s first-ever acquisition, although Iridium was part-owner before the acquisition. Satelles’ service, now Iridium STL, uses hardware without outdoor antennas to secure GPS and other GNSS-reliant systems from spoofing and jamming. Desch anticipates STL to generate over $100 million in service revenue annually by 2030.

For the full year 2024, Iridium forecasts total service revenue growth of four to six percent from the $584.5 million last year. Iridium’s stock popped 5.46 percent Thursday.

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