Iridium IRDM
A paid-for satellite network that Rocket Lab has agreed to buy for $27 in cash plus Rocket Lab shares. The open question is no longer what Iridium earns, but whether the deal closes and where Rocket Lab trades when it does. Seven questions that follow the money through the business, the price and the tape. Every number comes from SEC filings and market data, and every score from a rule printed next to it.
What this File stands on. Annual figures: FY2025 10-K (year to 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-12). "Last 12 months" figures add the quarters through 2026-09-30 (10-Q, filed 2026-10-20). Prices to 2026-10-21. "Last 12 months" figures leave out a one-off: the non-cash gain Iridium booked when it took full control of Aireon ($104M, quarter to 2026-09-30, Q3 2026 results release (8-K, 20 Oct 2026)), taken out of net income. The numbers rebuild every Monday, so each new 10-Q or 10-K appears within a week of filing. The written parts (business, defences, risks, the read) are from the FY2025 10-K, and the terminal read is dated 2026-10-20.
27 cents of every revenue dollar come from commercial voice and data, up 3% on the year.
What it does
Runs a network of 66 low-orbit satellites that covers the whole planet, poles and oceans included. It carries voice, data and machine messages where there is no phone signal, and sells GPS backup timing.
How it charges
Monthly fees per device, sold wholesale through about 630 partners who set the end price. Commercial voice and data is the biggest line, IoT the fastest growing. The US government pays a fixed $110.5 million a year for unlimited use.
Who buys, and why
2.7 million billable devices: ships, aircraft, trucks, remote workers, trackers and the US military. They buy it because it works everywhere, in bad weather, with small antennas.
Of every $100 of sales, $24 is left for owners once staff stock pay is counted as a cost.
Owner earnings = operating cash flow minus capital spending minus stock-based pay. Stock pay is a real cost: it is paid in shares instead of cash.
What it is building Harvesting
It spends little on growth. The business is being run for cash, not built.
R&D is treated as an investment written off over 5 years. Capital spending up to depreciation keeps the business standing; anything above it is growth spending. A company that puts more than 10% of sales into R&D and growth capex is building; it is paying off when after-tax profit has grown by at least 12 cents for every extra dollar of capital it put in.
The share count is shrinking 6.1% a year, so each share owns a little more of the business every year.
CEO Matt Desch, in the seat since 2006.
The strongest defence is switching costs.
Partners build Iridium chips into ships, trackers and military kit, so leaving means redesigning hardware, though distribution deals run only a year at a time.
Hundreds of partners build products on the network, but one more user does not make the service better for the next.
The constellation is paid for and capex stays low until at least 2031, but Starlink now runs thousands of satellites at a scale Iridium cannot match.
Licensed L-band spectrum with true pole-to-pole coverage and decades of US military trust, licensed to 2032.
Sources are rated from the annual report (notes file). The two evidence checks are computed: margins that hold and high returns on capital are what a real defence looks like in the numbers.
A reverse discounted cash flow: the growth today's price requires, set against what the business has actually delivered, and how that changes if you demand a different return.
The IVT terminal read on the weekly and daily charts: bias, money flow, strength, whether the entry window is open, and the sharp captures.
The worst fall of the last five years, the balance sheet, the pressure points and the specific conditions that would break the case.
Where the business sits on quality against price, the quality score line by line, and the conclusion.
The rest of the IRDM File
Chapters 5 to 8: the growth today\'s price assumes, the full IVT terminal read with sharp captures, what would break the case, and the final read.
Where every number comes from 14 figures, each linked to its SEC filing
| Figure | Value | Period | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $872M | FY25 | 10-K, filed 2026-02-12RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax |
| Operating income | $236M | FY25 | 10-K, filed 2026-02-12OperatingIncomeLoss |
| Net income | $114M | FY25 | 10-K, filed 2026-02-12NetIncomeLoss |
| Operating cash flow | $400M | FY25 | 10-K, filed 2026-02-12NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities |
| Capital spending | $100M | FY25 | 10-K, filed 2026-02-12PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment |
| Stock-based pay | $52M | FY25 | 10-K, filed 2026-02-12ShareBasedCompensation |
| Buybacks | $186M | FY25 | 10-K, filed 2026-02-12PaymentsForRepurchaseOfCommonStock |
| Dividends | $63M | FY25 | 10-K, filed 2026-02-12PaymentsOfDividendsCommonStock |
| Diluted shares | 108M | FY25 | 10-K, filed 2026-02-12WeightedAverageNumberOfDilutedSharesOutstanding |
| Cash and investments | $98M | 2026-09-30 | 10-Q, filed 2026-10-20CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue |
| Debt due within a year | $3M | 2025-12-31 | 10-K, filed 2026-02-12LongTermDebtCurrent |
| Long-term debt | $1.8B | 2025-12-31 | 10-K, filed 2026-02-12LongTermDebt |
| Short-term borrowings | $3M | 2025-12-31 | 10-K, filed 2026-02-12ShortTermBorrowings |
| Shareholders' equity | $577M | 2026-09-30 | 10-Q, filed 2026-10-20StockholdersEquity |
Educational research, not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Scores are mechanical and reproducible from public filings; the notes are the author's judgment. Author position in IRDM: none. Sources: SEC EDGAR XBRL company facts (filings to 2026-09-30), daily prices to 2026-10-21. Past performance does not predict future returns.