On April 1st, the Canadian space company MDA Space announced its plan to acquire Israel's SatixFy, a manufacturer of chips for satellites, in a deal valued at $269 million. The move is intended to complement MDA's capabilities in the field of satellite constellation manufacturing. Mike Greenley, MDA's CEO, noted that the acquisition of SatixFy will strengthen the company's supply chain as part of its efforts to increase the rate of production to two satellites per day, with software-defined payloads that can be reprogrammed in space. Under the terms of the deal, MDA will purchase SatixFy shares for a total sum of approximately $193 million. In addition, MDA plans to repay all of SatixFy's debts of $76 million, bringing the total cash transaction volume to approximately $269 million.
More cover with fewer satellites
SatixFy was founded in 2012 by veterans of Gilat Satellite Networks and RaySat and initially received support from the Israel Space Agency for the development of ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) components for satellite communications. The company specializes in the development and manufacture of these components for low-orbit satellites (LEO), ground antennas, and end terminals.
Yoav Leibowitz, chairman of SatixFy, explained in an earlier interview that the company's technology makes it possible to "achieve more coverage using fewer satellites, thus saving hundreds of millions of dollars." The company's customer records include the Canadian company Telesat and the British OneWeb. In 2022, following a merger with a publicly traded skeleton company (SPAC), SatixFy began trading on the New York Stock Exchange with an issue at a valuation of $365 million.
This isn't the first time MDA and SatixFy have collaborated. In August 2023, MDA acquired SatixFy’s British subsidiary, which develops systems and subsystems for satellite payloads, for $40 million. As part of that deal, MDA also pledged to pay $20 million in adavance for chips used in satellites and ground-based systems.
Expansion in the field of satellite constellations
MDA has a long history as a sub supplier of antennae and other satellite components for non-geostationary orbital satellite constellations (NGSO), in addition to supplying space robotics and operating Radarsat remote sensing satellites from geostationary orbit.
In recent years, the Canadian company has turned to the construction of NGSO satellites as a main contractor, to meet the growing demand from satellite constellation operators all over the world. The first order for MDA's platform came in 2022 from the Canadian company Telsat, which plans to begin deploying nearly 200 broadband satellites in an NGSO orbit next year. Last February, MDA announced that it was building more than fifty satellites for Globalstar's communications system, which is supported by Apple.