4 ms·

I believe Apple is going to - either acquire Globalstar or a similar satellite carrier (Lynk?) in the future. It's safe to buy stocks of the former.

mikece 4y ago
Or hedge their bets by buying a right of first refusal option from Globalstar should anyone else try to acquire them while leaving Apple free to look for other options and partners.
- jws 4y ago
  The feature is sold as a two year free subscription to the service, not a feature of the device. That suggests to me Apple isn't committed to this forever. They want do be able to abandon the technology and human staffed relay infrastructure if this is eclipsed by satellite 5G or some other option and not get sued in 195 countries for breaking a device feature after the sale.
  - mandeepj 4y ago
    > That suggests to me Apple isn't committed to this forever. Apple TV+ is also offered as 1 year free service when you buy a new phone, then you can also say the same about it, but - in fact - needless to say, Apple is committed to it.
    - tdhoot 4y ago
      Only once, not for every phone. So if you get it once, buying another phone won't renew it. And now it's only 3 months.
  - Daneel_ 4y ago
    I don't read this as lack of commitment, I read this as "we want to keep a limit on the total number of active devices" - if it's free for two years then there will be a moderate percentage that always have it because they refresh their device every two years or less, there will be a significantly smaller percentage that use an older device and choose to pay the ongoing fee, and a much larger percentage that keep the device longer than two years but don't pay the fee. This last category is how they'll effectively manage the ongoing costs - anyone who isn't a frequent customer or willing to pay is excluded. It's a solid model.
grork 4y ago
I mean, there is this clause in the 8k: “On September 7, 2022, Partner and Thermo entered into a lock-up and right of first offer agreement that generally (i) requires Thermo to offer any shares of Globalstar common stock to Partner before transferring them to any other Person other than affiliates of Thermo and (ii) prohibits Thermo from transferring shares of Globalstar common stock if such transfer would cause Thermo to hold less than 51.00% of the outstanding common stock of the Company for a period of 5 years from the Service Launch (as defined below). This agreement does not prohibit the Company from entering into a change of control transaction at any time.”
- pxeger1 4y ago
  For reference: "Partner" is Apple "the Company" is Globalstar Thermo is a VC company
boringg 4y ago
Probably get some call options on Globalstar on an easy bounce.
arctics 4y ago
Can someone please explain how this company is still in business with huge losses for years?!
mrweasel 4y ago
Seems highly likely, acquiring Globalstar that is. Having one customer account for 85% of your business, however you want to count that, is extremely risky. I had a previous employer who would get concerned when one customer accounted for 20%+ of revenue. You can sort of fix this by increasing revenue, but Globalstar sold 85% of capacity, for a resource that is expensive and difficult to increase. The upside is that many customers will want to be on the same service as Apple, so that might help grow their business.

mikece 4y ago

Or hedge their bets by buying a right of first refusal option from Globalstar should anyone else try to acquire them while leaving Apple free to look for other options and partners.

jws 4y ago
The feature is sold as a two year free subscription to the service, not a feature of the device. That suggests to me Apple isn't committed to this forever. They want do be able to abandon the technology and human staffed relay infrastructure if this is eclipsed by satellite 5G or some other option and not get sued in 195 countries for breaking a device feature after the sale.
- mandeepj 4y ago
  > That suggests to me Apple isn't committed to this forever. Apple TV+ is also offered as 1 year free service when you buy a new phone, then you can also say the same about it, but - in fact - needless to say, Apple is committed to it.
  - tdhoot 4y ago
    Only once, not for every phone. So if you get it once, buying another phone won't renew it. And now it's only 3 months.
- Daneel_ 4y ago
  I don't read this as lack of commitment, I read this as "we want to keep a limit on the total number of active devices" - if it's free for two years then there will be a moderate percentage that always have it because they refresh their device every two years or less, there will be a significantly smaller percentage that use an older device and choose to pay the ongoing fee, and a much larger percentage that keep the device longer than two years but don't pay the fee. This last category is how they'll effectively manage the ongoing costs - anyone who isn't a frequent customer or willing to pay is excluded. It's a solid model.

grork 4y ago

I mean, there is this clause in the 8k: “On September 7, 2022, Partner and Thermo entered into a lock-up and right of first offer agreement that generally (i) requires Thermo to offer any shares of Globalstar common stock to Partner before transferring them to any other Person other than affiliates of Thermo and (ii) prohibits Thermo from transferring shares of Globalstar common stock if such transfer would cause Thermo to hold less than 51.00% of the outstanding common stock of the Company for a period of 5 years from the Service Launch (as defined below). This agreement does not prohibit the Company from entering into a change of control transaction at any time.”

pxeger1 4y ago
For reference: "Partner" is Apple "the Company" is Globalstar Thermo is a VC company

boringg 4y ago

Probably get some call options on Globalstar on an easy bounce.

arctics 4y ago

Can someone please explain how this company is still in business with huge losses for years?!

mrweasel 4y ago

Seems highly likely, acquiring Globalstar that is. Having one customer account for 85% of your business, however you want to count that, is extremely risky. I had a previous employer who would get concerned when one customer accounted for 20%+ of revenue. You can sort of fix this by increasing revenue, but Globalstar sold 85% of capacity, for a resource that is expensive and difficult to increase. The upside is that many customers will want to be on the same service as Apple, so that might help grow their business.