Profitable Iridium has 2.55 million commercial and government customers.

A new American vertical launcher-operator is formed by merging a former “big four” satellite operator with a commercial launcher building a competitor to SpaceX's Falcon 9

June 29 : Rocket Lab struck an $8 billion deal to acquire satellite communications provider Iridium Communications on Monday, betting on a SpaceX-style advantage that combines a…

This could eat into SpaceX's end-to-end space biz.

Rocket Lab acquiring the Iridium telecom network creates a vertically-integrated satellite connectivity operator.