MUMBAI: This is an initiative that promises to have broad ramifications for the global satellite industry. Alcatel and Finmeccanica which claims to be Italy's largest aerospace and defense group have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).
As per the same they will merge their space activities and form alliances in the space sector through the creation of two sister companies. The partners will contribute their respective satellite industrial and service activities to the joint venture.
The first company will be known as Alcatel Alenia Space. Alcatel will hold approximately 67 per cent of the stake. This will combine Alcatel Space and Alenia Spazio's industrial activities. Alcatel Alenia Space is estimated to do 1.8 billion euros worth of sales for the year. It will position itself as the European leader within the global satellite industry.
It will concentrate on designing, developing, and manufacturing space systems, satellites, equipment, instruments, payloads and associated ground systems. The company will operate through five business divisions. They are telecommunications, optical observation and science, observation systems and radar, navigation, infrastructure and transportation.
The second company,will combine Telespazio with Alcatel Space's operations and services activities. It will concentrate on operations and services for satellite solutions. This includes control and exploitation of space systems as well as value-added services for networking, multimedia and earth observation.
The company is estimated to conduct sales in the region of 350 millions euros for the year.
The two groups decided to combine their respective strengths in the space industry to better serve this growing market. The aim is to also benefit from the expansion of their customer base as well as leveraging the complementary nature of the technologies and know-how contributed by both the parties.
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or their employees. Alcatel leverages its position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services to bring value to its customers in the framework of a broadband world. It had sales of 12.5 billion euros last year and claims to be operating in more than 130 countries.
