by Sam Silverstein<\/p>\n
Spurred by the challenging global economy and the rapid march of technology, satellite companies are increasingly are looking to partnerships as a way to boost their bottom lines, cut risk and find new areas for growth, panelists said Monday at SATELLITE 2010.<\/p>\n
\n Particularly in tough times, companies look to work together to share risk, combine ideas and find new markets for their products and services, said Peter Shaper, CEO of CapRock Government Solutions<\/strong>, a Fairfax, Va.-based provider of satellite services to government agencies. He predicted satellite firms would continue looking to cooperative arrangements as the economy slowly recovers during the coming months.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n Matt O\u2019Connell, president and CEO of GeoEye<\/strong>, a remote sensing company based in Dulles, Va., agreed. Alliances can help companies expand their customer bases by helping them make products and services easier to understand, he said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to make the stuff we have more useful for our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n \n O\u2019Connell pointed to Google<\/strong> and Bloomberg<\/strong> as two companies that exemplify the importance of making technology accessible to users. Google Earth has increased the public\u2019s interest in satellite imagery, and Bloomberg\u2019s user-friendly approach to information delivery has made it easier for people to understand the financial markets, he said. <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019re not just interested in selling pixels. We\u2019re interested in services,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cAs we look to the future, I think that combining what we have with what other people have is going to become more and more useful.\u201d<\/p>\n \n O\u2019Connell said Google has redefined the remote sensing market and created demand for GeoEye\u2019s services that extends beyond the traditional government market. Working with Google in the aftermath of the January earthquake in Haiti, GeoEye was able to make satellite imagery of the country available on the Internet within 24 hours, he said. \u201cIf you make [your products] easier for people, they\u2019ll use them more. People want the information without the hassle.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Eric B\u00e9ranger, CEO of French satellite imagery provider Astrium Services<\/strong>, said his company is \u201ctotally built on a partnership mindset.\u201d B\u00e9ranger said Web-savvy companies skilled in making technology broadly accessible are creating new opportunities for Astrium to sell its products.<\/p>\n \n Satellite companies have also turned to acquisitions of companies in non-satellite businesses to inject growth into their operations. Dean Olmsted, chief executive of EchoStar Satellite Services, Englewood, Colo., said his company\u2019s 2007 purchase of Sling Media Inc., a pioneer in the distribution of video programming over the Internet, has broadened EchoStar\u2019s horizons and positioned the company in a new market, albeit an unproven one with uncertain prospects. \u201cThe core elements of our business have been growing significantly\u2026 in a recession. More people stay at home and watch television,\u201d Olmsted said. \u201cPeople are very interested in new technologies\u201d such as the service Sling offers.<\/p>\n \n Peter Jackson, CEO of Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co.<\/strong> (AsiaSat), advised satellite companies that acquire or create subsidiaries to allow those units to operate independently \u2014 even if that means they lease satellite capacity from competitors. \u201cIf you create a subsidiary, don\u2019t tie its hands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n Even as they look to partnerships to expand their markets and mitigate financial risk, satellite executives said the general economic climate they are dealing with is relatively strong.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Jackson was surprised at how well the investment climate has held up during the prolonged recession, at least for his firm. \u201cWe thought the finance situation would get worse. It got better,\u201d he said. \u201cI think from the financing situation globally, we seem to have blinked and missed it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Shaper said the rough economy has opened up opportunities for CapRock<\/strong> to focus on its strengths as a service provider and build its market position. \u201cWe believe great companies invest in a downturn,\u201d he said. \u201cWe entered into a heavy phase of investment. It is about investing in services and capability so we can be that much further ahead when the markets turn around. Having been a private equity investor, it has cemented in my mind that financial strategies in this time could make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Sam Silverstein Spurred by the challenging global economy and the rapid march of technology, satellite companies are increasingly are looking to partnerships as a way to boost their bottom lines, cut risk and find new areas for growth, panelists said Monday at SATELLITE 2010. Particularly in tough times, companies look to work together […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}