Iridium Shareholders Bless Rocket Lab's $8B Takeover — Now the FCC Decides When It Closes

Iridium Communications shareholders voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday, September 24, to approve Rocket Lab's $8 billion acquisition of the satellite operator — approximately 99.6% of votes cast backed the deal, representing about 81% of Iridium's outstanding shares, the companies announced. Full voting results will be filed with the SEC on Form 8-K.

The vote was the easy part. Iridium's directors had signed voting agreements in advance, so the outcome was never in serious doubt. What matters now is everything the vote did not resolve: the deal's headline $54-a-share value floats with Rocket Lab's stock through a collar banded from $67.50 to $112.50, and the Federal Communications Commission's review of Iridium's satellite and spectrum license transfer — a review that, unlike Wednesday's vote, actually determines whether the companies hit their mid-2027 closing target.

The vote itself

The special meeting was held virtually on September 24 at 8:30 a.m. ET. “We appreciate the strong support of our stockholders for this transaction and the bright future we are building with Rocket Lab,” said Matt Desch, Iridium's chief executive. “Today's vote is an important milestone toward bringing together two companies with complementary capabilities, a shared commitment to innovation, and deep experience supporting some of the world's most critical missions.”

Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Sir Peter Beck called the vote “an important milestone in bringing together Rocket Lab and Iridium to create a next generation space powerhouse.”

What Iridium holders actually get

Holders receive $27.00 in cash per share plus Rocket Lab shares — a mix the companies priced at $54.00 a share at signing, roughly a 24.1% premium to the prior day's close. All in, the transaction values Iridium's enterprise at nearly $8 billion.

The collar is where the real economics live. If Rocket Lab's 10-day volume-weighted average price sits at or below $67.50, the exchange ratio locks at 0.4000 shares. That floor mattered: Rocket Lab traded below it in mid-September — closing at $62.55 on September 14, which implied a deal value of about $52.02 a share — before rallying back above the floor into the vote. Iridium traded around $46.18 at the time, roughly 11% below implied deal value, the standard merger-arbitrage spread.

The FCC is the pacing item

The antitrust waiting period under Hart-Scott-Rodino expired on August 12, clearing that hurdle. What remains is the FCC's public-interest review of the transfer of Iridium's satellite and spectrum licenses — the scarce, globally coordinated L-band spectrum that analysts consider the deal's crown jewel. The companies expect to close by mid-2027, explicitly subject to the remaining approvals.

Financing, at least, is de-risked. Rocket Lab completed a $1.944 billion at-the-market share sale on September 15 — 29.3 million shares at an average near $66, roughly 5% dilution — and terminated the $3.6 billion bridge facility it had lined up from Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo. Rocket Lab held about $2.13 billion in cash at the end of June.

Why Rocket Lab wants a satellite operator

Iridium generated $871.7 million in revenue in 2025 with operational EBITDA of $495 million — a 57% margin — on a base of more than 2.55 million subscribers across government, defense, aviation, maritime, and commercial markets. Rocket Lab reported $602 million in 2025 revenue with a $1.85 billion backlog, but has not posted a profitable quarter since early 2024.

“We have a very profitable business being Iridium to start with, essentially a brand new constellation … And of course, the all-important spectrum,” Beck said on the June announcement call. The strategy mirrors SpaceX's Starlink playbook: build the rockets, build the satellites, and own the constellation they fly in.

The week ahead for the deal

The next hard datapoint is regulatory, not financial: the FCC's review clock. After that, the collar math keeps running — the exchange ratio will be set from the 10-day volume-weighted average price ending two full trading days before close, so every move in Rocket Lab's stock between now and mid-2027 reshapes what Iridium holders ultimately receive.

Wednesday's vote removes one closing condition from an $8 billion deal. The conditions that remain — an FCC license transfer, a floating exchange ratio, and a mid-2027 finish line — are the ones that will decide what this merger is actually worth.